Tensions
by Calefe
Summary: The war with Gaea is over, and everyone, especially the Seven and Nico, should be happy. Right? Wrong. Tensions within the group of demigod heroes still exist, just below the surface. But what happens when a mysterious enemy takes them away from the safety of Camp Half-Blood and forces them to face those tensions? *Rated T- All canon ships, Solangelo, Caleo*
1. Leo's (Not-So-Triumphant) Return

**Calefe here!**

 **This story is now COMPLETE! However, I will be updating some earlier chapters with better writing, especially the first three or four. But no plot changes will be made. This chapter is fully updated.**

 **This story is 21 chapters long, and each of the Seven, plus Nico, will get at least two chapters in their POV. Constructive reviews are appreciated. On with the story!**

Leo

Defeat Dirt Face? Check.

Die? Check.

Come back to life after dying? Check.

Make an awesome entrance onto Ogygia? Check.

Rescue an un-rescuable immortal goddess? Check.

Travel around most of the world with that same goddess? Check.

Get annoyed by someone equally annoying as him? Check.

(That last one was nearly impossible. Leo prided himself on his annoying-ness.) Leo's bucket list (minus the dying bit) was now complete.

He was beaming widely. Nothing could go wrong. But, of course, Leo was a demigod son of Hephaestus— _e_ _verything_ could go wrong. But for now, the sky was a beautiful shade of blue, the sun was shining brightly, and even the birds were chirping, even though there was a giant bronze, flame-snorting dragon with two soot-stained passengers onboard invading the birds' territory. _It can't get more cliche than this!_ Leo had to admit that New England's scenery was beautiful, though he wasn't usually one for scenery. But it wasn't as beautiful as Calypso. Nothing was. Calypso was amazing. Leo still couldn't believe that she'd actually agreed to leave her pristine island for _him_. Leo Valdez. Leo smiled widely as he imagined what Calypso would say if she ever heard him say that out loud. Maybe _Took you long enough to realize how lucky you are, boy!_ That, or she would swat him.

Struck by that thought, Leo smiled mischievously and yelled out suddenly.

" _Calypso! Festus is failing! We're gonna crash! And die!_ "

Any sane person would have screamed. _Leo_ would have screamed. But then again, Calypso wasn't exactly sane. After all, she could've had her pick of any buff, tall, and handsome heroes. And instead, she'd chosen Leo. Awesome. _Someone equally as insane as me!_ Instead of screaming, Calypso punched him in the side lightly. It hurt. It was only a slight consolation to him that Calypso tightened her grip on Leo's waist slightly.

"I do know _some_ things about mechanics, Valdez! And I know enough to say that _no_ , we are not going to 'crash and die'!" Whoops. _Meh. Oh well. It was worth a shot..._

Leo shrugged, and knew even without turning around that Calypso was rolling her eyes. Like Piper. And Hazel. And Annabeth. And... Leo was starting to detect an unpleasant pattern here... _What is it with females and rolling their eyes?!_ But anyway, there were some things that you just learned about other people when you traveled the world with them for weeks. Among them: Calypso like to roll her eyes. Calypso enjoyed making Leo squirm. Calypso enjoyed bad-mouthing him in front of random McDonald's waitresses. Calypso... _There's another pattern here..._

Suddenly, acres of strawberry fields and dozens of cabins spread out in an omega shape came into distant view. Tiny figures darted back and forth, and Leo could swear that he heard swords clashing in the training arena even from a mile up. Leo couldn't resist.

" _The Super-Sized Mc-Shizzle is baaaack!_ " he yelled, screaming his throat hoarse. Calypso laughed and gasped, releasing her grip on Leo to point at the demigod camp.

"Leo—is that your camp?!" Leo could only guess at what the camp—an oasis tucked between several highways—looked like to Calypso, who'd been stuck on an island for centuries… While in China, she'd gasped in awe at the skyscrapers, and while in France, she'd started muttering some stuff in rapid-fire Greek that Leo couldn't keep up with when she saw an elevator. In Australia, when they'd visited a zoo, she had immediately started dragging Leo everywhere in her haste to see everything. And in New Jersey, USA... Leo shuddered to even think of it. Leo had had to forcefully yank Calypso away from a dirty beach before she started beheading the lifeguards for polluting the ocean or something.

He did not want a repeat of that incident.

"Yep, Sunshine!" Leo answered her question belatedly. "Now, Festus..." he tapped out a set of instructions in Morse code. The now permanently activated bronze dragon responded with creak 'n Squeak. _Yes, okay, fine... Alright... okay... Are you sure setting the Ares cabin on fire is a good idea?_

Honestly, that dragon thought he was Leo's chaperone or something. _YES! I came up with it, so of course it's good! While you're at it, put a ring of fire around the Hermes cabin. I still haven't gotten Connor and Travis back for that last prank a couple months ago..._

If machines could roll their eyes, Festus would have. Wait. He _could_ roll his eyes. _Dang..._

Leo watched in delight while Calypso repeatedly smacked him as the bronze dragon set a ring of grass aflame, so that the Hermes cabin was trapped (Travis screamed like Octavian). The next target? The Ares cabin. Flying overhead in "stealth mode", something Leo had invented while he was bored in France while Calypso explored the _wonderful_ (read: horrible) world of malls, Leo cackled as several grenades were set off by a single flame. _Honestly, they should really be more careful with explosives..._

Sparks flew up into the air, and Leo instructed Festus to fly them down closer, ignoring Calypso's shouts of _WHAT THE HADES ARE YOU DOING?!_ When he got close enough to the exploding, multicolored sparks that shot up to a hundred feet in the air, he concentrated on manipulating the sparks. After all, they were fire. Sort of. It took a lot of effort, but after a moment, Leo was able to do what he wanted.

 _Land us just outside the dining pavilion when I say so!_ He ordered Festus, who creaked agreement. Then they waited for the explosives to do what Leo wanted them to do.

* * *

Sure enough, a minute later, a loud popping sound brought all the campers (minus the Hermes cabin) rushing towards the Ares cabin, close to the dining pavilion. They watched in awe, suspicion, and excitement as the grenades shot into the air, sending off fireworks as bright as Apollo himself. _Bright._ Not hot. _Bright_ as Apollo.

The fireworks arranged themselves in a single sentence:

COMMANDER TOOL BELT IS BAAACK!

And at the same time as the campers read the phrase with varying degrees of difficulty, Leo removed stealth mode from Festus, and they landed softly on the ground with a thump.

* * *

Curious campers crowded around them instantly. And then the shouting began.

" _OH. MY. GODS. LEO!_ " A girl with a shocked expression pushed past the mob and wrapped Leo in a bone-crushing hug. "We thought you were dead! You _were_ dead! How in Aphrodite did you— "

"Ah, well, I'm not dead. Well, I mean, I was dead. But Festus gave me the cures… so now I'm not dead!" Leo interrupted her, smiled, and awkwardly patted Piper on the back. Suddenly Piper slapped him across the face. Hard. "OW! What was that for?!"

" _We were worried sick! You have been missing! For! Nearly! Two! Months! And! Now! You! Expect! That! With! A! Few! Fireworks! That! Everything! Will! Be! Fi—_ "

"Yeah, thanks for your concern, Beauty Queen," Leo grinned cheekily, interrupting her (again). "But did you have to slap _quite_ so hard?" he whined. But really, he was glad Piper had showed such concern for him. Especially since on the Argo II, the others had kinda… well, paired off. Without him. Leo shook the thought away.

"You _did_ deserve it, Leo!" Jason raced up, and tackled Leo into another hug. Thankfully, he didn't slap Leo, although he looked like he wanted to. " _Commander Tool Belt?!_ " he whispered into Leo's ear. Leo laughed, and looked up to see the rest of the Seven stepping up to him as well—Percy, holding hands with Annabeth, Hazel, wide-eyed, and Frank, looking awkward as usual. "Care to introduce your friend, though?" Jason nodded at Calypso, who had been watching the events unfold bemusedly. Now, though, she spoke.

"I'm Calypso…" Leo frowned as he heard Calypso trail off. He followed her gaze and saw Percy. _Oh._ Almost unconsciously, his fists clenched, crushing the pipe cleaner helicopter he had unconsciously been creating. Leo glanced around quickly. Nobody seemed to have noticed, so he hurriedly unclenched his hands. Leo rapidly plastered a smile on and tried to diffuse the tension building between Calypso and Percy, not noticing that smoke was coming out of his nose. But before he could do so, Percy cleared his throat.

"Um, Calypso? I'm really sorry I didn't free you..."

The pavilion was silent. Even the onlookers (why did _they_ look like they wanted to slap Leo too?!) didn't make any sound. Surprisingly, even the Ares kids weren't angrily demanding Leo to repay them with new grenades. "The gods promised and all, but that's not an excuse. I should've checked up on you, or made them swear on the River Styx, or something. So… yeah. I'm sorry. I'm glad the curse is broken now, though." Percy's sea-green eyes started straight into Calypso's unflinchingly.

Calypso looked stunned, but said stiffly, "I accept your apology. But next time you break a promise…"

Percy interrupted, his gaze hardening. "I'm not forgetting that you cursed Annabeth!" Leo had no idea what he was talking about. But by the way the blood drained out of Calypso's face, she definitely knew.

"So, where were you guys for these couple of weeks? Leo? Calypso?" Hazel interrupted, successfully bringing the attention back to Leo, who smiled gratefully at her (the smoke stopped coming from out of his nose). As Leo began recounting their adventures with a herd of angry chicken monsters in France while they toured Europe, Calypso began to relax. Leo noticed this, and he gave her a dazzling grin. Calypso's mood improved even more when the others introduced themselves cheerfully to her. When Calypso informed them that she was a Titaness, Frank accidently turned into an iguana from fright, though Calypso laughed it off. Soon, Piper's daughter-of-the-love-goddess look came onto her face as she thought of an adequate ship name for Leo and Calypso.

"Caleo, my new OTP!" she smirked triumphantly. Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Leo, and Nico, who had just joined the group, laughed at this. Well, Percy, Annabeth, Jason, and Leo laughed. Nico just did a half smirk/smile thing that was utterly creepy on the son of Hades. Leo wondered how Nico even knew what shipping/OTPs were, seeing as he was from the 1940s and all. He must have had a questioning look on his face, because Nico rolled his eyes.

"Will Solace told me all about shipping and all that stuff." Then, realizing what he'd said, he turned bright red, though he tried to put his stoic demeanor back on.

" _Solangelo!_ I ship it!" Piper practically screamed. Meanwhile, the demigods (and goddess) who had no idea what was going on—Hazel, Frank, and Calypso—were all looking extremely confused. Leo howled with laughter when Frank realized that he had the same level of modern knowledge as an immortal goddess who had been trapped on an island for hundreds of years, and Hazel, a child of the past.

Jason and Piper tried to explain the concept of "shipping" to them (Hazel was fanning her face at this point, while Frank, puzzled, asked "What's an ohteepee?"), and the rest were just catching up with each other to the background noise of the Hermes cabin screaming. Apparently, no one had thought to extinguish the flames, and Leo sure as heck wasn't gonna, at least until the Stoll brothers admitted he was the best pranker.

Well, actually, they weren't exactly "catching up" with each other. More like Chiron had just announced that it was Beat-Up-Leo Day. Even Clarisse and her siblings were running after him and threatening to beat him to a pulp, while Calypso watched, amused. And an angry, brick-wielding satyr chomping on soda cans was nothing to laugh about. Everything seemed back to normal, but then a strong wind suddenly flared up.

"Jason?" asked Annabeth quizzically. Jason shook his head.

"Definitely not me." Jason's eyebrows were knit together. Leo recognized that look. He'd only seen it twice before on Jason: when Jason woke up on the Wilderness School bus with no memory, and when Jason realized that one of the Seven would die on the quest to defeat Gaea. Leo's shoulders stiffened.

And just then, Leo had the vague sensation of being whisked away with the brisk wind, out of Camp Half-Blood (to the chorus of cries from campers as they watched their eight heroes be flown away and Calypso's screams of "Leo!"), and into some sort of warship… the Argo II! But it couldn't be. The Argo was destroyed weeks ago! Months, even! Yet Leo would know his creation anywhere. He'd spent _half a year_ building it! The screams of campers became softer and softer as Leo fell into a deep, though definitely not dreamless, sleep.

 **Find out what happens next in the next chapter, in two days or so!**


	2. Fire Versus Water

**Hello guys! I'm back as promised with this chapter!**

 **Note: Thanks to Derek Chase for correcting my grammar in the eleventh paragraph!**

Hazel

 _Hazel was powerless. A blanket of pain and misery swept over her, the Seven, and Nico. She wailed in agony, pain searing her skin. One by one, they all collapsed. Hazel screamed, but the pain had no mercy._

 _It choked her. It strangled her. It smothered her. She clenched her eyes shut, not wanting to see the others in the same pitiful situation she was in. But a force thrust them open again._

 _"Help! HELP!" Hazel screamed, panicked. "Nico! Someone! NICO! Someone please HELP!" Gut–wrenching sobs poured out of her throat in an irregular stream._

 _"No one can help you, Hazel Levesque, not even your brother, Nico."_

 _Hazel shrieked in pain as a fresh wave of misery washed over her._

 _"In fact, I find it ironic that_ you'll _be the one hurting him…" a silky smooth voice purred. "And don't forget—your turn is_ second _!"_

With a gasp, Hazel awoke, slumped, on a rough wooden floor. She kept her eyes closed, pondering the nightmare. What had that dream meant? She would hurt Nico? _Never_ , thought Hazel. _I would never hurt Nico!_ But Hazel found the last sentence the voice had said the most disturbing of all. Were people going to take turns hurting Nico, or something? _Relax, you're reading too much into a silly dream_ , Hazel chided to herself. Of course, she was a demigod; she should've known better. Hazel still had a vaguely uneasy feeling, but she shook it off, rather unwisely…

 _The most important thing right now is… where am I?_ The last thing Hazel remembered was Piper explaining something… and a wind… the wind! It swept the Seven and Nico away from the safety of Camp Half-Blood and to, well, wherever this was. Hazel shakily stood up, opened her eyes, and saw that the others were stirring now. And there was a slight breeze— they were on some sort of deck! And Hazel caught a brief glimpse of foamy green sea— they were sailing, although the ship didn't seem to be moving.

"Argo…" someone muttered. Hazel glanced around and saw Leo sitting up blearily. "We're on the Argo II…" With a start, Hazel realized that Leo was right. But how could that be? The Argo II had been completely destroyed when the war with Gaea had ended! Or had it? Hazel had never heard the full details of exactly how Leo had transformed the giant warship into a reincarnation of Festus, back in his full glory... was it possible that the ship had survived? But the king of the gods himself had broken it... Suddenly, a voice spoke.

"Not quite… the physical Argo II may have been destroyed, but memories remain. I've reconstructed the ship from memory, you see. However, it is quite real, and stocked with everything you had on the original Argo II." Hazel shuddered violently, a chill sweeping over her skin. The voice was sudden, loud, chilling, and menacing—and seemed to echo around the room. Hazel couldn't tell whether it was a low woman's voice or a high man's voice. In fact, the voice was eerily similar to the voice in Hazel's dream.

"Why? What do you want with my friends and me?"asked Annabeth furiously, jumping up from the floor with a dagger in hand. The other demigods were tense as well: Leo shuffled his feet from side to side, Percy stood in a battle stance, Jason's face was a practiced blankness, and Piper touched her knife, belted at her waist. Frank moved closer to Hazel and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. She responded with a slight smile and a squeeze back before apprehensively scanning the room for threats.

The voice just laughed with no humor. "Ah. Annabeth Chase… what a great source of amusement you are to me… first those adventures with Luke, then Percy… then Tartarus! That was fun!" Annabeth's face turned red in rage, and she stepped forward towards where the voice seemed to be coming from. "But now… these pathetic demigods. But it is not your turn today, unfortunately."

"My friends are not pathetic! And my sufferings were _not fun_! What do you want with us?!"

"Fine then, if you insist. You want to know what I want? What I want… is entertainment." With a white flash of light, all eight demigods were transported to the Argo II's training room, leaving Hazel feeling nauseated, though she forced it down. Despite knowing that they were basically on a replica of the Argo II, Hazel couldn't help but gasp at the training room. Dummies lined the walls, and a weapons rack adorned one corner of the spacious space. Common household items were also in another corner, in case the demigods wanted to reenact a surprise assault, Hazel guessed. Her musings were interrupted by the voice. "You see, I know there are certain… tensions within this group of demigods. I waited until you were all together to take you here. I'm thinking of ten 'duels'—you'll find out what they are exactly later. A week onboard this ship, and tensions rising! Wonderful entertainment for me! First victim… hmm… ah! Leo!"

All of the demigods started talking at once.

"First _victim_?" Hazel really, really, didn't like the sound of that word.

"We're going to be here a WEEK with this lunatic god, goddess, or whoever?" Piper threw up her hands, exasperated.

"Who the Hades was that?" Nico cursed softly in Greek, his scowl returning.

"What 'duels'?" Annabeth's gray eyes narrowed dangerously.

"I'm not anyone's victim!" Leo snorted, literal smoke coming out of his ears.

"Dammit! I thought the war was over!" That was Frank, in an out-of-character outburst.

"What does the voice mean, we're _entertainment_?" Jason wondered with an edge to his tone.

"This sucks." Everyone but Jason turned to Percy, who'd said that last line. Hazel managed a smile, despite the tough situation they were in. Percy was very blunt. And honest.

"How are we going to get out of here?" asked Jason worriedly, ignoring Percy completely.

Leo cleared his throat and rolled his eyes. "Uh… we're on the Argo II, Superman. Y'know, a _ship_?" Hazel sighed in relief. Maybe they would get out of this mess after all. But of course, the voice had to interrupt. Again.

"Please, Mr. Valdez. You think I haven't thought of that? There's a force field around the ship. You can't see right now, but you're in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and you can't move the ship. There's no getting out of your duel! So, everyone, please, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. Our main performer? The one, the only, Leo Valdez!" Suddenly, a strange change came over Leo. His normally cheerful demeanor became something else… anger.

Pure, undiluted, raging white-hot anger.

" _What is wrong with you?!_ " he bellowed, glaring straight at Percy. Horrified, Hazel ran to Leo and tried to pull him away from Percy. She didn't know what had happened, but it wasn't anything good. But the fire-user simply shook her off, a stark-white, glowing aura encasing him. "YOU'LL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO CALYPSO!" Percy stood in shocked silence. Then, he too became angry, and encased in the white glow. Hazel backed away.

" _Says the useless seventh wheel who fired on New Rome!_ " Percy yelled and punched Leo in the stomach. Leo doubled over and gasped for breath, his hair sparking.

"And so begins Duel Number One: Leo Valdez versus Perseus Jackson!" the voice cackled. Hazel shook with anger at the mysterious enemy, but was pulled against the training room wall, preventing her from interfering in the "duel".

Jason and Piper ran to Percy and tried to prevent him from assaulting Leo, but were restrained against the wall as well. Hazel glanced around and noted that everyone was against the wall, besides Leo and Percy. Piper caught Hazel's eye _. I'm going to try to charmspeak_ , Piper mouthed. Hazel nodded, though she knew Piper didn't like using her charmspeak on her friends; it was the only way. Piper opened her mouth, prepared to speak, but before she could—

"No, no, no! No interference! Wasn't me anchoring you to the wall subtle enough? No talking! That includes charmspeaking, Miss McLean!" the voice sounded vaguely like a disappointed schoolteacher, Hazel thought. She tried to speak, but sure enough, not a sound came out. The group was forced to watch from the sidelines as Leo withdrew a handful of 3-pound club hammers from his tool belt, set them on fire, and chucked them at Percy, who made the pipes inside the walls burst and flood the room up to ankle-height.

"YOU TOLD CALYPSO YOU WOULD END HER PUNISHMENT! YOU LIAR!" Hazel was terrified. As Leo's anger grew, his body became wreathed in flames, melting away the water Percy summoned. The training room wasn't that large: Hazel was afraid Leo and Percy's powers combined might just cause an explosion. And with the six people that actually had full control of their minds held back against the cold training room wall… well, Hazel had never been great at math, but even she knew those were not great odds. Then, a scream from Percy broke the room's temporary silence.

" _Calypso nearly killed Annabeth!_ " Hazel didn't have any idea of what Percy was talking about (Annabeth's face turned pale), and neither did Leo, from the bewildered expression he wore. But he immediately shook it off, using his high body temperature to melt away the water surrounding him.

" _You promised!_ "

"No one wants you around! No _wonder_ you _KILLED YOUR MOTHER!_ " Hazel froze (as if she could move, anyway). Besides her, she saw Jason mouth a curse at Percy. Everyone knew Percy had gone too far. Even Nico, who wasn't one of the Seven, had heard about Leo's crushing guilt—even though it wasn't his fault—when it came to Leo's mother.

Leo stopped shooting flames. His anger seemed to dissolve. However, Percy was oblivious and continued yelling hideous insults at Leo, before finally noticing that Leo wasn't yelling accusations back. "You scared?" taunted Percy. Leo didn't respond. He glared straight at the son of Poseidon, flames flickering through his hair. Hazel was a good distance away from him, and even she could feel the heat rising off of his skin in waves. Tendrils of fire were wreathed through his fingers, and he appeared to be _standing_ on fire.

He looked at the other demigod with pure hatred, spun on his heel, and burned the doorknob off of the door to the room. Like a dream being blinked away at the dawn of a new day, the white glow that had enveloped Leo disappeared. Now Leo was back to normal… if normal was looking like he was about to simultaneously kill someone, kill _himself_ , and… cry? Before Hazel could process this, Leo had pushed away the door, and left. _He was so cheerful when he came to camp... and now..._

Hazel could hear his heavy, pounding footsteps all the way to the engine room.

A silence fell, and everybody, even Annabeth, glared at Percy, who was shaking his head, confused. "I—what—did I do that?" he asked, bewildered.

"Yes, yes! You most certainly did. With some, ah, _encouragement_ from me, of course. That was very entertaining. Let's see… who shall be the next victim? Hmm. Oh, I know! All of you, gather here tomorrow morning at ten. As for the rest of today, do whatever it is you puny demigods do—attempt to figure me out, blah blah blah. See you tomorrow!" The voice laughed evilly, and with a loud _snap!_ The demigods were no longer restrained against the wall, and could talk.

Now, Hazel wasn't a violent person. But even she wanted to murder the voice slowly and painfully for what it'd done to all eight demigods, especially Leo and Percy. She couldn't even imagine what, say, Jason or Annabeth were thinking.

"I'm going to go find Leo." She said. Everyone glanced at her.

"Are you sure?" asked Frank with a slight undertone of jealousy, which Hazel ignored.

"I need to make sure… you know, that he's okay after that…"

 **Oh Leo...**

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	3. A Mad Goddess Makes an Appearance

**Enjoy!**

Frank

Frank was in shock. He'd heard that Leo had sort of resented Percy for a bit about Calypso, but… that was just… wow. And then Percy had yelled about Leo's mother… Frank hadn't even liked Leo all that much, but seeing the genuine hurt on Leo's face had been painful for the shape-shifter as well. Anyway, speaking of Percy, Frank thought he looked terrible. And that wasn't even a comment on Percy's facial features.

"Oh gods, what have I done… holy Poseidon!" Percy's expression was drawn taut and he muttered to himself in low tones as he paced in tight circles around the training room. Frank winced; wasn't Percy getting dizzy? "What the _hell_ have I done? I gotta apologize…" There was some incomprehensible mummers that Frank wasn't sure he wanted to hear, and then Percy cursed a final time. "... _damn_ it!" With a sudden roar of anger, Percy punched the wall, leaving behind a small but noticeable dent. Frank cringed. That must have hurt, though Percy showed no visible signs of that. He merely stopped pacing and examined his hand coolly, almost detachedly.

"Percy?" Frank asked Percy tentatively. He'd never seen the older demigod like this before, not even on the quest to save _the entire world_. "Uh, are you okay?"

" _No_! I'm _not_ okay! I probably just caused Leo to have a breakdown!" snapped Percy, resuming his pacing, now looking almost maniacal. Piper and Annabeth shot alarmed glances at each other, and had a silent conversation with their eyes that Frank could neither make head nor tail of. _Must be a girl thing..._ Apparently the eyeball conversation produced adequate results, as Annabeth nodded in a satisfied way, though she still looked slightly wary of Percy, who thankfully didn't notice.

Piper nodded back at the blond demigod. "Percy?" she asked. When he didn't respond, she asked again, more forcefully. Frank had to admire her bravery; he wasn't sure what exactly Percy was capable of right now. He was one of the most powerful demigods, and the power of the sea was controlled mainly by emotions... Then he saw the slight, almost unnoticeable, tension in Piper's shoulders, which were almost completely covered by Jason's arm. _I wonder if Percy knows how scary he is right now…_ wondered Frank.

"What?" growled the demigod in question. His voice was loud, snapping, and wrathful. Wrathful at who, Frank couldn't be sure. However, seeing the hurt look on Piper's face, Percy relented slightly, pausing in his pacing. "Sorry, I don't know what's gotten into me…" Percy trailed off, an anguished expression crossing his features. "Gods…"

"Why don't you go to your cabin and relax or something? You're probably very _tired_ right now," Piper stressed "tired", charmspeak creeping into her voice. Her charmspeak was so powerful that Frank had to actually struggle to not head out for his cabin to take a nap. With difficulty, Frank watched as Percy nodded mutely and strode out of the training room, now rubbing his temple wearily. Annabeth watched him leave sadly. Frank saw, out of the corner of his eye, that she held out an arm as if to stop her boyfriend, but then dropped it again.

Just then, a very worn-out and stressed Hazel came back in, providing a welcome distraction. Frank put his arm around her shoulders, and raised an eyebrow at her. Hazel sighed, and Frank realized with a start that her eyes were red-rimmed. "He locked himself in the engine room. And h-he's…" he voice broke. "It sounds like he's destroying everything in there. And I think he's crying, too." A somber silence greeted this news. Frank couldn't believe his ears. The cheerful, happy-go-lucky Latino Santa's elf destroying the engine room of the Argo II, his pride and joy, and even worse— _crying?!_ Frank hadn't realized that Leo had been so badly wounded (mentally), and he suddenly felt a rare rush of compassion for the son of Hephaestus. (That was a first.)

Suddenly, Jason yelled out, breaking the silence, his anguish filling the room like a thick cloud of fog that couldn't be seen through. Frank hadn't even realized that Jason was there, that was how quiet he was.

"DAMN YOU! WHOEVER YOU ARE, YOU'RE A SADISTIC MANIAC, YOU — — —!" A long, continuing string of cuss words that would even make Arion wince followed the outburst. Every syllable was punctuated with a sob. Jason sank down against the nearest wall and stared blankly into space, all his energy used on his explosion. Frank pretended not to notice him blinking away tears, and let Piper handle it. That was all he could do. He felt helpless, but he had to stay strong.

"Jason—Jason! Please calm down! We need you! Please!" Piper begged, sliding down against the wall so she was next to Jason again, and hugging him. Frank felt Hazel trembling besides him, and pulled her closer, stroking her hair absentmindedly. Nico, the silent son of Hades, was absentmindedly fingering his Stygian iron sword, though not in a warlike way. Just... thoughtfully. Frank didn't see that Nico was actually fighting an internal battle—follow Percy or not? (Staying won.) Meanwhile, Annabeth's steely gray eyes seemed to be calculating something as usual, though Frank noted that her body language showed she was hurting inside. Ever since Frank had become the praetor of the Twelfth Legion, he'd started noticing those things more often. (It really helped with Senate meetings, when everyone was arguing over each other.) At that moment, Annabeth cleared her throat.

"Let's move somewhere else. The dining room, maybe? W-we shouldn't stay here." There was no arguing with her, not that any of the demigods wanted to. Frank actually had had pretty good memories practicing sparring in this very room on the _real_ Argo II, but now? Those memories were nothing. Nil. Nada. Null. Negated. The six demigods still left in the training room nodded and left the room behind. Unfortunately, the memories of what had occurred remained.

"So," began Annabeth when everyone was seated at the dining room table. (Frank and Nico sat on either side of Hazel, and on the other side of the table, Jason and Annabeth did the same with Piper, respectively. For the first time, Frank noticed how lost Annabeth looked without Percy there next to her.) "First thing is—"

Jason interrupted. "I want to know who the sadistic voice belongs to so that I can throttle them for hurting Leo and Percy." The cold tone he took was, if possible, even scarier than Percy and Leo's "duel". Frank couldn't help but shiver slightly in his seat. Jason wasn't anybody to be toyed with. He was the son of the most powerful god, and the one-time leader of not _one_ camp, but _both_. Frank half-expected one of the girls to protest, but no one did. That was a mark of just how bad the situation was, that even Hazel didn't argue. Speaking of Hazel… Frank gave her hand a squeeze from under the table. He saw that Nico was doing the same on the other side of Hazel. Frank gave Nico a small smile, which the son of Hades returned hesitantly.

"Those white glows…" Piper mused softly. "They reminded me of something, like those eidolons at the beginning of our quest." Frank nodded. Suddenly, a puzzle piece had fallen into place, and everything clicked.

"But the eidolons _possessed_ people. These glows—auras—whatever—they… well, I don't know how to explain it, exactly, but they just _influenced_ Leo and Percy," Frank furrowed his brow, and continued upon seeing that everyone was listening intently to him. "Like, I know Leo used to be angry at Percy about Calypso. The auras just brought out those feelings. Does that make sense?"

Everyone nodded, but Hazel spoke up. "That just makes it even worse when they started fighting, doesn't it?" Frank looked down, because Hazel was absolutely right.

Annabeth tucked a strand of blond hair behind her ear, trying to change the subject. "So… these auras bring out anger?"

Nico communicated for the first time, his voice barely more than a whisper, "I've seen those glows before."

Next to Frank, Hazel suddenly sucked in her breath. "Oh gods, Nico, are you sure you want to..?"

"I need to, Hazel," Nico stated flatly, resigned. Frank leaned forward in anticipation. Where could Nico have seen the glows, and why did Hazel have such a reaction to him saying that? Glancing around at the four other curious demigods (Jason was scratching his head), the son of Hades sighed heavily. "I saw them when I was in… when I was in Tartarus." _Oh, gods..._ Frank saw Annabeth's breathing grow shallower, and she replied softly.

"I remember them too, now. They were surrounding some of the older spirits. I didn't really pay much attention to them, but some spirits was angry; some were just insane. I think they're in the Fields of Punishment, too." Nico nodded in agreement with the daughter of Athena, absentmindedly brushing his fingers against his dark hair.

"But then the question is, what do the auras _do_ , exactly?" Piper piped up, her eyebrows knitted together in concentration. Frank thought of the events of earlier. Leo and Percy had been angry with each other... almost murderous. They definitely hadn't been in their right minds, that was for sure. But that begged the question: what mind _were_ they in?

Frank spoke again, not entirely sure of his theory. "Based on what Leo and Percy did under the auras' influences... I think the auras take pent-up anger or rage and force it out, or something of that sort." _Gods, I sound like Mars now,_ thought Frank. Maybe that was a good thing, in this case.

Annabeth's eyes grew wider, and she stood up without even seeming to realize it. Her grey eyes sparkled, not with humor or wit, but with dawning comprehension. "But then… I know this! Then the voice belongs to…"

A sudden voice made everyone jump.

"Lyssa. I am Lyssa, goddess of rage, madness— and not to mention fury! You Romans might know me as Furor. And those 'auras', as you call them, are my Furores, my spirits, who influence the victim, whether it be to madness or simply rage." The voice wasn't unfamiliar, yet it still sent chills down Frank's spine. It was almost even worse that _Gaea_ 's voice. He couldn't tell whether it was male or female. Then again, if it was some sort of god, which was more than likely... voices were probably nothing to disguise.

"Honestly, you ought to call yourselves lucky that I didn't decide to do the madness treatment on you! Actually, that's an idea!" An eight-foot tall shadowy figure that was hard to make out suddenly materialized, and Frank pushed away his chair in his haste to stand up. The figure radiated insanity and raging madness. The smoky designs within the shadow swirled around mystically, although not alluringly. Frank scrambled backwards, not even caring that he had knocked his chair down in order to get as far away as possible from the malicious goddess. A low chuckle could be heard, and several of the demigods flinched.

"I just came to wish you good luck for tomorrow." And Lyssa disappeared with a flash of white light, leaving the group dumbstruck.

 **Lyssa is the goddess and personification of rage, madness, and fury. She has a little army of spirits called Furores, named after her Roman form, Furor. My interpretation of her is just that—** ** _my_ interpretation. Greek mythology is up to anyone's interpretation, right?**


	4. The Hidden Side of Hazel

**That's right, guys. I've updated every other day so far. Reviews as thank-yous are appreciated.**

 **KatterWriter: I update at least once a week.**

Nico

Nico woke up in his cabin on the Argo II feeling absolutely crappy, and his mood didn't get any better when he recalled the previous day's events.

The afternoon before, after Lyssa announced herself, he'd almost collapsed trying to shadow travel out of the Argo II. He'd moved all of three inches. Woot. Frank attempted to turn into an eagle and fly away, but somehow ended up as a giant turtle. Jason tried to control the winds to move the ship, but just knocked Annabeth over. Piper had tried to charmspeak Lyssa into letting the demigods go, but Lyssa simply magicked an entire roll of duct tape over Piper's mouth, a clear warning. Though what kind of goddess gave warnings through purple rubber-duck duct tape, Nico didn't know. (Nico also suspected that Lyssa's sick sense of humor had enjoyed watching the demigods struggle to peel the tape off Piper mouth, a very painful process.) And later, when trying to manipulate the Mist, Hazel was knocked out by a mysteriously swinging boom, though there was no wind. And every time Annabeth tried to communicate a plan, Lyssa would spark random thoughts of pink fluffy unicorns in Annabeth's mind, making it impossible for Annabeth to concentrate. Needless to say, Annabeth had not been pleased. All in all, a typical demigod day, except made even worse by the fact that they were basically being held captive by a deranged goddess who was—oh yeah—a freaking spirit of fury and madness, with a personal army of Furores, as if Lyssa being a powerful goddess wasn't bad enough.

Nico was jolted out of his negative thoughts (there was a reason people called him "death boy", after all) by a loud rapping on the half-open door.

"Uh, Nico? Are you decent? Everyone's up and in the dining room." Came a female voice. Nico sat up and saw a furiously blushing Hazel with a hand over her eyes, but he could tell she was peeking. Nico laughed outright, surprising even himself. _Must be Solace rubbing off on me,_ thought Nico.

"I'm glad I _was_ decent, considering how big those gaps between your fingers are," Nico smirked. "Gimme a minute, and I'll be up," But suddenly, just as quickly as his cheerful mood came upon Nico, it disappeared, like the sun taking refuge from the world by ducking behind a cloud. "Are Percy and Leo up? I mean, are they-?" Hazel cut Nico off, a strange look appearing in her normally warm hazel eyes. Nico tried to read her. Anger? Confusion? Guilt? Little did he know that Hazel was thinking of Lyssa's words to her in Hazel's dream: _"You'll be the one hurting him [Nico]…"_

"They're—well, you'll see, when you come to breakfast." With that, she left. Nico mentally cursed himself for bringing that up, but couldn't help thinking that, _Well, that sounds ominous…_

* * *

A strange sight greeted Nico as he walked in to the dining room. Everyone else was there already, including Leo and Percy. But the only one talking was Percy, who was saying sorry to Leo in various ways. Scanning the room, Nico saw that everyone was just watching Percy, which was a surprise in itself, considering that they were in a room with eight very-ADHD demigods.

"Look, man, I'm so sorry!" No response.

"Dude! I'm apologizing!" Nothing.

"I'm SORRY!" Percy waited for Leo to say something. Anything.

Meanwhile, Leo just sat there with a neutral, closed-off expression and messy bed-head covering his eyes, though with a closer glance, Nico saw that Leo's hands were fidgeting with bits of wire underneath the table. Finally, after a moment of awkward silence, just as Nico noticed Leo's red-rimmed eyes, Leo looked up, a familiar, mischievous twitch in his lip.

"Seriously? I forgave you already, but I guess you couldn't hear me over the sound of your own apologizing. At least now I know why Annabeth calls you Seaweed Brain!" he grinned brazenly. A relieved sigh from Percy broke the remaining tension, and the atmosphere seemed to be back to normal, or at least as normal as it could be when an insane psychopath goddess haunted the thoughts of every single demigod.

Nico had just grabbed an enchanted plate from Camp Half-Blood and started eating his breakfast of Italian gelato (What? It was good!) when a clattering sound interrupted. Nico glanced up reluctantly from his ice cream to see Leo smiling ruefully. "Not to worry, ladies and gents, just Clumsy Repair Boy, at your service!" The demigods—except for Nico—nodded and went back to eating and carrying on their own conversations. But Nico saw that as Leo bent down to pick up the wires he dropped, Leo's face changed. Instead of the happy and cheerful face Leo projected, it became sad and depressed. Nico knew—his own face had often been the mirror of that before. In fact, sometimes it still did. Nico didn't particularly like the Latino, but he resolved to talk with Leo after the day's duel—oh gods. The duel! Nico cleared his throat urgently, and everyone looked up. (Nico couldn't help but notice that once again, Leo's mask of exuberance came back on.)

"Guys—what time is it? Lyssa said the next duel would be at ten, and she means business." Annabeth checked her silver watch, and cursed.

"Gods, it's three to ten! We need to go!"

* * *

As soon as the last person stepped through the door, (Percy walked in reluctantly; Leo was almost trembling, though he tried to hide it) the room sealed itself shut (apparently Lyssa created a new doorknob to replace the one Leo burned off) with white light.

"Welcome, demigods! This is the second round of the duels! You will be sealed in here until you're not. Anyway, today's victims shall be… drumroll please!" Nobody did a drumroll. "Hazel Levesque, aaaaaaand… Nico di Angelo!" Lyssa's voice echoed.

Nico was frozen. Why were he and Hazel in a duel together? Hazel had no reason to be angry at him… right? He opened his mouth—perhaps to ask that very question, perhaps to yell at Lyssa, perhaps to do something he didn't really know, but he never found out. Hazel was already enclosed in a circle of Furores flitting around her.

Out of the corner of his eye, Nico saw that everyone else had been pinned against the wall again. He could only assume that they weren't able to speak, like last time. He and Hazel were on their own. But strangely enough, Nico didn't feel the Furores surrounding himself. He looked down. By his feet, the spirits were floating around, but they couldn't seem to get any closer. It was like an invisible force was simply preventing them from influencing Nico like they had with Hazel. Was it Lyssa? No, Nico dismissed that thought instantly. But then, what was it?

Lyssa's amplified voice sighed deeply. "Ugh, you've still got that Tartarus immunity protection on you. Well then, Hazel is perfectly capable of doing this one-sided. But Mr. di Angelo—next time it's your turn to duel again, that protected will have faded, so don't think you're off the hook just yet! Anyway… Hazel versus Nico shall begin!"

"Wait! What Tartarus immunity protection?" Nico couldn't stop himself from asking.

"You curious demigods…" complained Lyssa. "Well, if you must know, your experiences in the Underworld and Tartarus, especially as a child of Hades—I loathe him, by the way—have created a temporary immunity to my Furores. But like I said, that'll be gone soon. I can sense those things. I'M ALL-POWERFUL! Why don't any of the Olympians acknowledge me as a powerful being? In fact, why don't they even acknowledge my EXISTENCE anymore?! Ever since Hera used me for her own purposes in driving Hercules mad, what have I gotten? NOTHING! Not even a thank-you card! Even Dionysus, who used to consult me, IGNORES me now!"

"I think I heard of you before…" Nico tried to stall. "Weren't you a footnote in that book about Nyx?"

"A FOOTNOTE? A _footnote_? I am the most important daughter of Nyx, sprung from the blood of Ouranos himself! I am the child of Night and Sky! I drove Hercules and Actaeon mad! I am the spirit of frenzy and mad rage! I created rabies! That was a much better invention than Hermes' silly Internet!"

Suddenly, Annabeth spoke up. She'd managed to break the silence spell while Lyssa's concentration was on Nico. "But in the myths, you were calm and temperate! You didn't want to infect man with madness! What happ—?"

Lyssa sighed, irritated, and Annabeth fell silent again. "Gaea showed me how wrong I was. I supported her from the shadows… but enough stalling!" The sound of a pair of clapping hands rang out. "Let the duel commence!"

Hazel advanced upon Nico. She wasn't in her right mind, Nico knew. That didn't make it any easier when she hissed angrily, so only he could hear, "You're not my brother. You're a shame to Hades—Pluto—everyone—ME. No one likes you or wants you around. I know for that that _I_ don't. Why couldn't you have just left me in the Underworld? I was happy there, before I met _you_. You're just a creepy death kid that's a danger to everyone. Even Will Solace only tolerates you because Chiron asked him to. Personally, I don't see why he even bothered. I wish you would just curl up and _die_."

She continued, but Nico stopped listening. Nico knew it wasn't real. It couldn't be. Hazel _wouldn't_ say those things. _It's not real,_ he repeated to himself. _Not real._ Yet… it was.

 **Nico feels.**


	5. Rabies Lady Strikes

**Sorry I updated a couple hours later than usual...**

 **Here's chapter five. There will be a reader's question at the end of this chap though, so read through :)**

Piper

Piper hated feeling helpless. And yet, here she was, forced to just stand there and do nothing, and just _watch_ as her friends tore her apart. She wasn't stupid; she'd noticed how Leo was faking his cheerfulness earlier, at breakfast. Piper didn't want to confront him just yet; she'd give him some time to cool down, and maybe own up to his mask of joking and laughter by himself. But to be honest, that wasn't really Piper's top priority. Getting out of the clutches of the fury spirit, Lyssa, was.

But right now, right here, Nico was looking like he'd been slapped. His dark eyes were wide open and his mouth kept opening and closing, like a fish's. Piper would've found that funny on the normally reserved son of Hades, but the situation was too serious. Hazel, surrounded by the Furores, had whispered something to Nico, who immediately got a kicked-puppy look on his face. Piper didn't think Nico would appreciate him being compared to that, but it was true. Right at the moment, Piper didn't see the tough-guy-son-of-Hades Nico. She just saw a hurt fourteen-year-old. _What did Hazel say?_

Piper was restrained against the wall facing Hazel, so she could only lip-read brief snatches of phrases. But it was enough to make Piper feel chilled inside. She couldn't imagine how she would feel if, say, Jason or Aphrodite said the same kinds of things to her as Hazel was saying to Nico. _You're a shame… no one likes you… creepy death kid… danger… Solace only tolerates you because Chiron asked him to…_ Piper gave a silent gasp of indignation. How dare Lyssa make Nico go through that? Nico survived _Tartarus_ by _himself_ , went through _two_ wars _and_ a truckload of emotional pain, just to be taunted by an insane (literally) goddess that Piper had never even heard of before she kidnapped them?! Piper's blood boiled. Lots of things in the demigod world—heck, same with the mortal world, for that matter—weren't fair. Piper was living proof of that. But to put them through this physical and emotional torture, not for the greater good, but because a vengeful goddess decided she wanted revenge? That was just sadistic, to borrow Jason's phrase. Piper felt like a whirlwind of fury was rising inside her, getting higher and higher… until _poof!_ It disappeared as quickly as a popped balloon as she gaped at Nico.

It looked like Nico had had enough. The kicked-puppy look was gone, replaced by a very angry, very determined demigod, child of a very powerful god… He shot out his palms and a massive wave of inky darkness circled Hazel until only the cloud of darkness could be seen. Nico's eyes—cold, calm, calculating—terrified Piper. She imagined that this was what Percy had looked like when choking Akhlys, that goddess in Tartarus, on her own poison. Now she understood why Annabeth had been so frightened. Just then, Nico muttered something under his breath in ancient Greek, and suddenly… the dark wave retreated, though now Piper caught glimpses of white in between the tendrils of black. Hazel stood in the same spot, same pose, same expression… or was it? Suddenly, Piper realized: the Furores were gone! Somehow, Nico had managed to trap the spirits in the cloud of darkness, effectively subduing them. With a wave of his sword, Nico removed the Furores.

Utterly transfixed, Piper watched as Hazel's expression changed from cruelty to confusion, and then horror as she realized what she'd done.

"Nico! Oh gods! Schist!" Hazel ran to Nico and tried to hug him. But Nico, with a look of pure fear on his face, stepped back involuntarily. Piper could only watch sadly as Hazel slumped to the group and tears trickled down her face, while Nico blearily tried not to sink down to the ground and stay awake. The effort to dispel the spirits had obviously taken its toll on him. Piper wondered if the store of ambrosia onboard the Argo II was still in the ward.

"Idiotic Hades demigod!" growled Lyssa. "Those Furores will take WEEKS to reconstruct! I do have others—" (The demigods all sighed) "But… ugh!"

"Sorry to ruin your plans, Rabies Lady," Leo said sarcastically. Lyssa had let the restrained demigods off the wall and enabled them to talk once it was clear Hazel and Nico wouldn't be doing any more "dueling".

"Aargh! Don't call me that!" screeched Lyssa.

"Why shouldn't he?" Jason's eyes flashed. "You probably just traumatized four of us in the space of two days!" Piper nodded angrily, for once, too upset to talk. (She was also afraid that if she spoke, she would break down.) Percy wasn't though. He had no problem with voicing his opinions.

"What do you WANT from us? Revenge?" Piper could almost imagine Lyssa nodding.

"Yes, you worthless sea spawn," Lyssa started, but Annabeth interjected.

"Don't talk to us that way!" Annabeth glared at nothing in particular, as Lyssa still wasn't showing herself.

"I hate you," Frank cut in quietly, from Hazel's side, where he was stroking her hair softly. "I. Hate. You. I HATE YOU!" he screamed very uncharacteristically, jumping up. For the first time, Piper truly saw how Frank could be a terrifying son of Mars in that one moment. "HOW DARE YOU PUT HAZEL THROUGH THIS?!" Before Lyssa could respond, Jason jumped in. (Thin wisps of smoke clung to his clothing.)

"And Nico—Nico's been pulled out of time, fought wars, been in freaking _Tartarus_ , and forced to admit his sexuality by some god in order to help a quest—a quest he wasn't even originally part of—succeed! He doesn't deserve this!" Jason's hair was crackling with electricity.

Lyssa did _not_ sound happy, even by goddess standards. (Cases in point: Hera, Athena…) "FRANK ZHANG, JASON GRACE! YOU TWO HAVE JUST VOLUNTEERED YOURSELVES FOR THE NEXT DUEL, ABOUT RIGHT NOW!" Piper reached desperately for Jason, but an invisible force—Lyssa—zoomed her away and anchored her to the wall. Again. Piper was really getting to hate walls. But before Lyssa could seal their mouths shut as well, Hazel looked at Frank and screamed desperately,

"Frank! Turn into something! You might be able to resist the Fur—!" Hazel didn't finish the word before Lyssa's magic zapped her speech, but Frank had already heard enough. He instantly began transforming, his nose turning into a snout, black hair growing all over his body, a small tail forming. A black bear!

The Furores reached Frank-as-a-black-bear, but just like with Nico, couldn't seem to get past Frank's paws. Jason, on the other hand, was already encased in a shell of Furores and marching angrily at Frank with no hesitation whatsoever.

For a second, Piper (foolishly) allowed herself to believe that Hazel's plan for Frank had worked. But then Lyssa laughed, and Piper's heart sank.

"Ha—you naïve demigods! I am, as Mr. Valdez said, 'Rabies Lady'! I am the daughter of Ouranos and Nyx, the goddess of rage and fury, the essence of madness, but most importantly, the spirit of rabies! Rabies!"

Frank realized his mistake and began trying to change back into human form, but Jason sent a strike of lightning Frank's way. The smell of singed fur filled the air, and Frank lost his concentration. From the corner of her eye, Piper saw Hazel squeezing her eyes shut, as if the sight was too much to bear. Piper had to keep watching, though. She had to make sure Jason—and Frank—would be okay.

"It's almost like the all-powerful son of Jupiter was _influenced_ by me!" chuckled Lyssa. Piper wanted to sucker punch Lyssa, but she was stuck to the wall. Meanwhile, Frank tried unsuccessfully to change back to human form, and Lyssa laughed again. That laugh was now on the list of Top Ten Things Piper Hated Most, right up there with Gaea, annoying goddesses, and merciless monsters. "Say hello to rabies, Frank Zhang, so-called praetor of New Rome!" trilled Lyssa. _Gods, I hate her!_ thought Piper. Judging by the looks on the others' faces, they felt the same.

Instantly, a swirling storm of grayish Furores (they were larger and seemed more… wild than the white Furores) overtook Frank in his bear form. And this time, they didn't stop. Frank growled. A mad glint in his eyes, together with a foaming mouth and constant head shaking were proof of Lyssa's intensely horrific powers.

Even when possessed, Jason knew enough to run away from the mad bear that was once Frank Zhang. But as Frank the bear advanced, trapping Jason in a corner of the room, Jason had no choice but to repeatedly shoot lightning at Frank, but to no noticeable effect. Piper felt tears tracing lines down her cheeks, and a quick glance showed that Hazel, Annabeth, hell, even Percy was crying, too. Leo wasn't crying, but he was watching with a tight mouth. Without his usually cheerful expression, he actually looked menacing. And Nico… Nico was shooting a concerned glance at Hazel.

Suddenly, a powerful blast from Jason sent Frank flying across the room, dazed. The white Furores left Jason, and the gray Furores left Frank (Piper let out a breath she didn't even realize she was holding) and dissolved into the air. But enough damage had already been done in the space of a few short minutes. Piper wondered if she would ever be the same again. Probably not, she decided.

 **I'm sorry, but Lyssa was the spirit of rabies. What did you expect?**

 **READER'S QUESTION: Who do you want to send into a coma? (Yes, I am asking this. Seriously.)**

 **Please vote only once (through reviews or PM)**

 **CHOICES:**

 **-Frank**

 **-Nico**

 **-Leo**

 **I might update in 2-4 days for the next chapter, but then again I've been saying that for the last, what, three chapters? And I ended up updating earlier :) But I'm serious this time... or am I? Muwahaha...**


	6. Hephaestus Comes to the Rescue

**Thank you to everyone who's been reading up to this point! Shoutout to everyone who voted for who would get put into a coma!**

 **(Leo "won") And because you picked Leo, you picked the Leo storyline! If Frank or Nico had gotten chosen, the storyline would've changed. So, enjoy!**

Hazel

An hour later, and Hazel was still trembling. She was sitting in a wooden chair next to Leo's bed in the sick bay. Piper was on the bed's other side, and everyone else was there too, sitting around the bed like it was a conference table or something. Well… everyone except for Frank. Hazel shuddered. Frank was probably throwing up or sleeping off his post-rabies fever. Luckily, he'd turned back to normal. Hazel had wanted him to stay in sick bay, but he refused, only taking some ambrosia and nectar for his burns, sheepishly saying that the distance from the toilet and bed was too far. Hazel understood; she'd spent approximately half of the original Argo II's sea voyage throwing up into the toilet herself. Frank was alright, but the same couldn't be said for Leo. After Frank and Jason's duel, he'd collapsed into a coma. Hazel shut her eyes, remembering…

* * *

 _Frank was a curled-up lump of fur, but suddenly morphed back into a human as the Furores left his body. Well, half-human, half-god, anyway. He had burn and scorch marks all over his arms, and a few on his legs. Hazel rushed to him, feeling guilty._

 _"Frank! Are you alright?" she choked out. "I'm so sorry, I told you to morph into an animal! I didn't realize that Lyssa…" Frank smiled wryly, his reassuring brown eyes saying that it would be all right._

 _"None of us realized that Lyssa would do that," spoke Jason, giving Frank a hand up. Hazel hadn't realized that Jason recovered already. "Frank, man, I didn't mean that—ANY of that. It was those stupid Furores. That's no excuse, though… even if they are worse than eidolons!" Frank nodded, shaking Jason's hand to show no hard feelings. But a loud thump distracted them. Leo, at the word "eidolon", had fallen in a dead faint. Hazel, Frank, and Jason rushed over. "What happened?!" Jason knelt down._

 _"Exhaustion, and I think that you saying 'eidolon' triggered some memories." Annabeth looked grim. "Does anyone know if he actually slept last night? Or the night before, at camp?" Nobody knew._

* * *

Hazel's thoughts were interrupted.

"We need a plan," started Annabeth. _Sorry, Leo…_

"No duh!" Percy got a glare from Annabeth. _I should've checked up on Leo again!_ Hazel berated herself.

"Shut up, Seaweed Brain. Anyone got an idea?" Hazel got the feeling Annabeth was appraising the demigods' potential for good ideas. Or maybe that was just the steely gray eyes.

"Well, this isn't exactly an idea, just an observation, but… six of us have been in a duel already. Only Annabeth and Pipes haven't…" Jason trailed off, wincing guiltily at the two girls mentioned.

"I've got no reason to be mad at you, Annabeth!" Piper protested, unwittingly using an undertone of charmspeak in her voice.

"Me neither!" Annabeth agreed. Hazel couldn't help noticing that Annabeth didn't quite meet anyone's gaze. But she disregarded it. _It's just paranoia. After those duels, anyone would be paranoid!_

Nico cleared his throat. "So. About a plan?" he prompted. Hazel thought. All the demigods' powers or talents had been tried already, except Leo and Percy's. _Leo…_ Hazel shook off the guilt.

"Percy, could you try to use your water powers to move the ship back to Long Island or something like that?" inquired Hazel. Percy nodded hesitantly, face screwed up in concentration. Suddenly, a miniature tidal wave crashed into the ward at ankle level. Hazel had an uneasy feeling that Percy had just killed the plumbing. Sure enough, Frank yelled:

" _PERCY_! I need to throw up!" Hazel stifled a laugh. Annabeth face palmed.

"What the…" Percy cursed. "Out of all the idiotic goddesses we could've been captured by, it's got to be the _one_ smart one!"

"Murphy's Law," Annabeth muttered absently. "Clean it up, Percy!" Percy smiled sheepishly and returned the water to who-know-where.

"Thanks!" Frank yelled.

"No problem!" Percy shouted back. Hazel resisted an urge to roll her eyes. (Annabeth didn't resist and did roll her eyes.) _Boys._

"Okay, so our powers don't work. We haven't tried Leo…" Annabeth glanced at the curly-haired demigod lying on the bed they were all gathered around, and frowned. Piper leaned forward and spoke confidently, though.

"When he wakes up—" Piper ignored the pessimistic looks—"When he wakes up, he can try something with his fire, maybe."

"Or he can build something," offered Hazel, glad for the slim chance of hope.

"Why don't we just pray to the gods?" Nico suggested. Hazel jumped up and hugged him, the idea was so brilliant. Surprisingly, Nico hugged back.

"Gods, I'm so stupid!" exclaimed Annabeth. "Everyone, pray to your godly parent!" Hazel bowed down her head and thought of Pluto, god of wealth and the Underworld, in his made-of-tormented-souls robes, sitting on his Underworld throne _. Please, Pluto. I haven't really talked to you much, have I? But I need you now. Please help us, dad._ Hazel lifted up her head. Nothing happened. But then, a vision danced before her. _Pluto, riding a skeleton chariot, charging an army of ghosts, deep in the depths if the Underworld. "Thanatos!" yelled Pluto (Hades?) furiously. "The ghosts are trying to sneak back onboard Charon's boat! Again! Get your lazy_ bifurcum _over here!"_ (Definitely Pluto, then. Bifurcum **(A/N: I found this in the glossary for BoO. It means "private parts", apparently)** was Latin.) The vision slowly faded, and Hazel sighed. Her dad was too busy rounding up the dead to pay any attention to the living.

"Pluto's fighting a bunch of ghosts trying to sneak back to life. It looks like he won't be listening to his prayers anytime soon…" Hazel sighed wearily.

"Yeah, I saw that too." Nico nodded, not looking any happier than Hazel did.

"Athena and Artemis are busy complaining about Apollo while discussing stuff about training the Hunters." Annabeth glumly stated. _There goes two gods right there._ Hazel pursed her lips. It wasn't looking good for the demigods.

"That's funny, Apollo was complaining about 'stupid maiden goddesses' to my dad. Except Poseidon was taking a nap. Oh, and I saw Frank's dad too. Ares, Mars, whoever. He was trying to figure out how to cut vines off Dionysus' throne on Mount Olympus without getting attacked by them. Wait… that's Ares, not Mars." Percy munched on a blue sandwich. Hazel blinked. A sandwich?

Annabeth noticed too. "Where'd you get that?" she demanded, looking none too pleased.

"There's a stack of plates—the magic ones—right there," Percy nodded towards a table. "It's noon. And noon means lunch!" Annabeth rolled her eyes again and grabbed a stack of plates, passing them about to the group. Hazel ate of few bites of a creamy shrimp dish that reminded her of New Orleans. (Luckily, Percy didn't see.)

"What vision did you guys get from your parents?" Hazel asked, glancing at Piper and Jason. "Anything?" _Anything at all?_ Hazel silently added.

Jason winced. "He was yelling at Mercury and Bacchus. Something about… uh… a delivery of wine Mercury made to Bacchus by accident? Apparently Bacchus isn't allowed to drink wine for a century," Jason was puzzled. Then he added, under his breath, "Jupiter yells really loudly." Percy snorted, and Jason punched him good-naturedly. "What about you, Pipes?"

Piper blushed bright red. "Aphrodite was… um…" Nico's eyes grew wide and he hissed at Hazel to "plug her ears". But before Hazel could reacts, Piper started speaking again. "Aphroditewasdoingsomethingwithamortalinhisbedroominhisapartment!" Hazel fanned her face wildly. Percy was laughing so hard, he fell off his chair. Annabeth pulled him back up, but Percy promptly fell back down. Poor Jason was the only one still trying to decipher what Piper had said.

"Aphrodite… was… doing… something? With… a… mortal… in… his… bedroom… in… his… apartment… _Oh_!" Jason flushed, and Percy began howling with laughter. Hazel prepared herself for a lot of Aphrodite/mortal jokes.

"How did that even work? Did you, like, _see_ them?" Percy snickered.

Piper and Jason glared at him. "Aphrodite was… um... suggesting they go into his room… and, uh, they locked the door… and yeah…" Nico smirked. Jason tried to keep a straight face.

"Maybe you should Iris-Message camp and tell the Aphrodite camp to expect a new demigod!" Nico's smirk grew larger. But then, Hazel gasped as the impact of what Nico said hit her.

"IRIS-MESSAGE!" she and Nico shouted together.

* * *

Within moments, a prism was found, a window opened to let the sunlight in, and a big pile of golden drachmas stolen from Coach Hedge's messy cabin. (Hazel remembered them from when Mellie, Coach's cloud-spirit wife, had been pregnant, and the satyr called her every night.)

"O Fleecy, do me a solid. Show us Chiron at Camp Half-Blood." Percy tossed a drachma into the rainbow, mouthing to everyone, _Shortcut_. Everyone leaned forward in anticipation, as a blurry image appeared. But as it sharpened, it was clear that it definitely wasn't Chiron. Not unless Chiron had undergone some sort of reverse plastic surgery. Hazel wasn't judgy, but this guy… he was just plain ugly. But his lined face was honest and hardworking, and he had familiar brown eyes. Hazel gasped. It was…

"Hephaestus! You're Leo's dad!" she exclaimed. A large, misshapen hand reached towards the Iris-message, and the angle shifted. Now they could see both Hephaestus and his surroundings. Hephaestus, dressed in a mechanic's overalls, was standing in a workshop that looked vaguely like Bunker Nine.

"Yes, I am. Although usually people refer to me as a god, not the father of a demigod…" Hephaestus scratched his heard, which was flickering with red-hot flames.  
" _You're_ Leo's dad?" Percy asked incredulously.

Hephaestus glared at him. "Got a problem?" Percy nervously shook his head. "Good. I haven't got much time. I've used a time-stopping machine so that Lyssa doesn't detect me here—wonderful design, hard to curl all those Celestial bronze ropes up though, maybe adding a bit of mortal metal could help with that, possibly some Imperial gold? I wonder if Zeus'll let me… no, he'll ask too many questions. Regular gold it is… a couple hundred pounds ought to be enough…" A dreamy glint in his eyes reminded Hazel of Leo when he was busy working on a project.

"Er, Lord Hephaestus?" Piper cautiously prompted.

"Oh! Yes. The time-stopping machine will only last a few more minutes or so. I'm the only Olympian who seems to actually keep track of their kids, so I guess I gotta save you. Anyway, you've got to wake Leo up. Tell him to use code forty-two in the miniature Archimedes sphere I've sent to his toolbelt to make an anti-listening device. Not a very simple machine, it might take a few days, but he'll figure it out. It'll save you. Make sure to tell him to use pure quartz for the inner gears, not diluted quartz, otherwise he might accidentally blow up the ship." Hephaestus was looking everywhere except at the demigods. _Why?_ wondered Hazel. Then, she realized—Leo had told her once that his dad wasn't good with "organic life forms". That must be why. "Shoot!" growled Hephaestus. "Only a couple seconds left. Tell Leo—code forty-two! And remember the quartz! And also, tell him…" The connection dimmed. "Damn, the time-stop's almost out! Tell Leo that…" Hazel didn't catch all of the last sentence before the time-stop ended, but it sounded like "Tell Leo that I'm proud of him."

 **Reviews are appreciated!**


	7. Welcome to Lyssaland

**I'm back! Shoutout to Writer-at-Heart0 and awesomeninja09 for being... awesome. Enjoy my longest chapter so far!**

Percy

Percy hated tasks that involved waking something, or someone, up. For example: When Morpheus had made all the New York City mortals fall asleep, and Gaea waking up. Yeah. Those weren't fun. And he also hated when he was forced to fight for entertainment. Examples in mind: that time with Luke/Kronos in the Labyrinth, and when Nike had unleashed her Nikettes during the Giant War. So basically, Percy hated Lyssa, who was making Percy do both.

"How the hell are we going to wake Leo up?" he grumbled. Just then, Frank ambled in to the sick bay, catching only Percy's question, with a confused expression.

"Isn't that dangerous? To wake him up, I mean?" Frank asked. Hazel quickly explained what had happened under her breath to Frank, who pulled up another chair to sit beside Hazel.

"Yeah, it is pretty dangerous. But we don't really have a choice here!" Annabeth was frustrated, and Percy put an arm around her. She relaxed slightly, but Percy could tell that she was trying to come up with a plan.

"Exactly how dangerous will it be for Leo?" Percy asked Annabeth, hoping for her to be distracted by answering the question.

"Well, it's very dangerous for mortals. But for a demigod… it might be completely harmless, or it might be fatal. Leo might spontaneously combust—no, that wouldn't be a danger to him—I don't know many more details." Annabeth ran her fingers through her hair. "But if he does combust, anyone near him could be injured, and though the explosion won't bother him, the after-effects definitely will. And they're very nasty." Percy did _not_ want to know what those after-effects were.

"What if…" Jason was in deep thought. "Pipes woke up Festus with her charmspeak. Couldn't you wake Leo up? You know, standing at a safe distance?" he addressed the question to Piper. She frowned.

"I don't know… maybe… but it's worth a try. We can't wait forever!" Percy nodded slowly. If Piper could charmspeak Gaea into falling asleep, she could definitely wake up an ADHD demigod in a coma. Annabeth didn't seem too convinced, though, probably because she actually knew what those nasty after-effects were.

"I guess we could try… but let's make sure the ambrosia and nectar are close by. And maybe an oxygen mask, too, just in case." Percy and Jason grabbed the bag full of ambrosia squares, Hazel and Frank got a sealed flask of nectar, Nico got an oxygen mask, and Annabeth placed them on the table next to the bed. Piper was left preparing herself to wake Leo up. Percy saw how she stood a few feet away from the bed, just in case, and her eyes were fierce and determined.

"Well, here goes nothing!" Piper smiled shakily. Percy admired her bravery. So many things could go wrong, yet she was still willing to try.

" _WAKE UP!_ " Percy jumped up from his chair, every nerve, cell, and muscle inside him tingling. He felt like he could climb Mount Everest. No, run a marathon! No, wait! A _triathlon_ , even better! He saw tiny details he'd never seen before, and would never see again after the charmspeak wore off. The streak of gray in Annabeth's hair had a single strand of blond in the center, for example. And his hearing… he heard the distant crash of waves miles away, his own uneven breathing, and the hum of a machine in Leo's cabin. Percy felt like he would never sleep again.

"Did it work?" Jason whispered impatiently, out of character for the son of Jupiter. Nico shushed him, and said:

"I feel a stronger life force coming from him now." Percy opened his mouth to say something, but a groan from the bed stopped him.

"Dang, Beauty Queen, who needs coffee when they've got your charmspeak?" Leo sat up suddenly and grinned. Jason tackled Leo with a very manly hug, who then fell off the bed into Hazel, Frank, and Nico's laps. Nico shoved Leo off, Frank stood up, and Hazel squealed and pushed her chair away, making Leo fall to the ground.

"Sorry, Leo!" she flushed.

"No problem, 'cause I wake up from a coma and then fall out of the bed because of overenthusiastic Sparky every day!" Leo joked and stood up, holding his head.

"You need ambrosia!" Percy force-fed a protesting Leo, relieving some of his guilt.

"Annabeth said you probably fell into the coma in the first place due to exhaustion!" accused Jason. Leo looked sheepish, like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Well?"

"Weeeeeell, I was up all night repairing Festus the nights before Calypso and I flew ino camp," Leo started.

"I don't like that, but at least it makes sense," Piper glared at Leo, "But what about yesterday? You didn't have anything to do, did you?" Leo stared at his feet, his grin dissolving.

"Insomnia. And I was kinda busy killing my engine room… sorry I yelled at you when you check on me, Hazel. But mostly insomnia." He mumbled. Percy felt the guilt rising up inside him again. It was because of Percy that Leo couldn't sleep. They were supposed to be a team! And Percy failed. He was about to apologize again, but Leo changed the subject abruptly.

"So what's this about me saving all of your butts?" he smiled brightly. The smile was very artificial…

"You _heard_ us?" Piper asked disbelievingly.

"Yep, because I'm the Super-sized McShizzle Repair Boy, baby!" Leo flexed nonexistent muscles. Now Percy saw what Annabeth meant when she said Leo and Percy had similar senses of humor. (Percy didn't think that was a compliment.)

Sure enough, Annabeth rolled her eyes. "When in comas, sometimes people can still hear everything that happened, or some parts." She turned to Leo. "How much did you hear?"

"Bits and pieces," Leo admitted. "Some guy told you guys that I need to build a—" Piper clapped her hand over his mouth.

"What if Lyssa's listening?" she hissed. Percy hadn't thought of that. But Nico and Hazel both shook their heads confidently.

"There's a weird shadow force-field around us right now, trapping the sound of us talking in. Lyssa can't hear." Hazel stated.

"I made it," Nico smiled at everyone's shocked expressions. "I can only hold it for a couple more minutes, though. So hurry up and talk." _Gods, if Nico isn't careful, he'll melt into a puddle of darkness. Or he'll be the next one in a coma!_ Thought Percy. He could tell from the others' faces that they were thinking pretty much the same thing. But at the same time, Percy couldn't help but be impressed by the Underworld talents Nico and Hazel had.

"So, anyway, someone said I need to make an anti-listening device. Against Lyssa so we can plot stuff, I guess. And there was something about code forty-two, and a quartz gear." Leo seemed proud of himself for remembering that much.

"That was your dad, Leo." Hazel said softly.

"My—my dad? Hephaestus?" Leo was shell-shocked. "Why? How?"

"We all prayed to our godly parents to help us, but they were all busy," Percy explained. A tiny prick of jealousy entered him. _Why did Poseidon have to be sleeping? Why did Leo get the Olympian parent that actually keeps track of their kids?_ "And then we tried to Iris-message camp, but Hephaestus intercepted. I'm guessing we can't reach camp anyway." Leo's mouth hung open. After a pause, he closed it.

"Thanks, dad." He said softly. He grabbed a plate, and a taco appeared. Leo lit up a fingertip with a small flame, and burned the taco as an offering, Percy realized. "Thanks." Leo repeated, and suddenly Percy wasn't jealous anymore. "So," Leo suddenly smiled, "How am I gonna save you all?"

The demigods took turns explaining, and Leo nodded thoughtfully. "I'll need a _lot_ of Celestial Bronze, but I've got that… some Imperial Gold—I can melt down some of the weapons we have onboard—a bit of pure quartz… hmm, don't know about that… and the Archimedes sphere, of course."

"How long will it take?" Frank asked.

"Normally, four or five days, I would say. But with the sphere? Three days? Most of that time would be spent purifying the quartz to Celestial bronze and Imperial gold standards, though. If I had, like, a giant chunk of quartz, then it'll be much easier—only a day or two." Leo pulled out the sphere from his toolbelt.

"Quartz? Like the mineral?" Hazel asked. Leo nodded, excitement crossing his elvish features. Hazel concentrated, and a second later, a huge chunk—a foot in diameter—of quartz appeared. "I sensed a large bit underwater, and I brought it up." She explained.

"You're awesome!" Leo grinned, his smile seeming too big for his face. "I'll finish the device by—hmm—tomorrow afternoon?"

Just then, Lyssa's voice boomed out, ruining the celebratory atmosphere.

"Sorry, the force field burst," Nico whispered.

"Enough of your idle chitchat! Time for Piper McLean and Annabeth Chase's duel!" The eight demigods barely had enough time to exchanged panicked glances before they were all transported to the training room.

* * *

"Ah, Duel Number Four. After this one, all of you will get to have at least one other duel! Isn't that lovely?" Lyssa chirped cheerfully. Percy rolled his eyes.

"You said there would be ten duels, in seven days!" called out Annabeth, trying to stall for time. "What are you going to do with us afterwards? And why are we having three duels in one day?"

"Hmm, good questions. I am going to use you as ransoms to get a throne on Olympus, after you entertain me. But I only need one for each god—" Percy's stomach lurched nervously, and he glanced at Hazel and Nico—"So perhaps I can get rid of either di Angelo or Levesque, doesn't really matter which one, to show I mean business. Anyway, once I get my throne, I'll just do whatever I want with the rest of you. You know, I hear that medieval methods of torture are coming back in popularity! As for the duels, well, I'm bored today. And it's day two, with six more duels needed. So I'll have a duel a day for the rest of the week, except for the day after tomorrow. It's the anniversary of the day Ouranos got chopped up! So in honor of that, I'll have two duels that day. Perfect!" Percy instinctively gagged and took a step back, and Lyssa laughed evilly. "On with the show!" Annabeth and Piper were suddenly surround by Furores, and everyone else was—once again—held against the wall, unable to speak or move. Percy tried desperately to break free— _Annabeth_ was out there—but it was too late. The third duel of the day had begun.

"Ha!" jeered Piper. "You call yourself a daughter of Athena? A _spider_ outsmarted you and dragged you into Tartarus! You deserved it for your stupidity!" Percy tensed at the mention of Tartarus.

"Well, _that_ coming from a child of _Aphrodite_ is just _pathetic_!" shot back Annabeth. "All you can do in a fight is look pretty and check your reflection in that useless dagger!" Her eyes glittering with malice, Piper unsheathed her dagger, Katoptris.

"Useless? You call Katoptris _useless_?" she spat. Annabeth grabbed a dagger of her own from a corner of the room and the two girls began sparring. Stab, parry, jab, thrust. Repeat. Percy gasped silently when Piper disarmed Annabeth with a well-placed jab. But Annabeth quickly retaliated with a swift kick, sending Katoptris skidding into a pile of swords. Piper grabbed the nearest weapon—a sharp ax—and pointed it at Annabeth's heart. In an amazingly agile twist, Annabeth managed to get Piper into a choke hold. Percy almost stopped breathing. The position the two demigods were in was precarious—one move and they could both be dead. But Lyssa spoke, and the two fighters stopped moving.

"No killing each other before I can kill you!" she ordered. The Furores left the two demigods. "Now, enjoy the rest of your second day in Lyssaland!"

Percy fell off the wall. "I hate Lyssaland." He grouched.

 **Hope you enjoyed that! The next chapter will be Annabeth's first POV. Review make a happy author!**


	8. Falling Into Swords is Not Recommended

**Hello. Long time no see, eh? Well, the next chapter should be updated sometime on Saturday. Enjoy "Falling Into Swords is Not Recommended". News flash, right?**

Annabeth

Apologizing wasn't really Annabeth's strong suit. Her fatal flaw, one that pretty much all children of Athena had, hubris—deadly pride—made sure of that. But she had no problem whatsoever with apologizing to Piper. Despite being a daughter of Aphrodite, Piper was a great fighter and confidante, in addition to being an amazing friend. No, apologizing wasn't the problem. Getting Piper to hear her out was.

The door to Piper's cabin remained shut, no matter how hard Annabeth knocked or how loudly she begged. Annabeth tapped her foot anxiously, checking her silver watch. Ten minutes with no response… Gods, Annabeth must have really wounded Piper with her words. She shuddered. Ghosts of the fight echoed in her mind. _Child of Aphrodite… pathetic… all you can do is look pretty… useless dagger…_ Annabeth winced as she remembered the feeling of her hands wrapped around Piper's neck. One good squeeze, and Piper's would've died. Because of _Annabeth_.

"Hey, Annabeth?" a voice startled her. She whipped out a dagger lightning-fast and pointed it at the throat of a wide-eyed son of Hephaestus.

"No friendly fire, please!" he yelped, raising his hands slowly. Annabeth frowned and lowered her weapon. "Jeez, Annabeth!"

"What is it, Leo?" she asked. He smiled crookedly, fidgeting anxiously. Like he was scared of her.

"I wanted to say thanks. You know, for when I was, uh, let's say, out of commission. And—" he rushed on, not meeting her eyes, "I need you to help me with the _device_ , too." He put special emphasis on the word "device". Annabeth understood immediately. He didn't know whether Lyssa was listening or not.

Annabeth still hesitated, glancing at Piper's door. Leo saw her gaze, raised an eyebrow, and sighed.

"Look, Pipes is just really… confused. She never actually experienced one of those duels before, you know. She's probably just sulking and wallowing in self-pity, or something. Trust me." Annabeth furrowed her brow. Not only did his words sound false (Annabeth prided herself on being able to read people), but Leo's voice had a strange tone to it too. It almost reminded her of a certain pair of Hermes demigods… Connor and Travis Stoll… In fact, the glint in Leo's eye reminded Annabeth of them too.

The door flew open suddenly, and an irate, fuming Piper stormed out. "Leo. Whatever-your-middle-name-is. VALDEZ! I am not _confused_! Or 'wallowing in self-pity', either! Gods, you should know better!" she glared at the snickering Latino. Wait. _Why is Leo laughing..? Oh!_ Annabeth stifled a grin herself. _Leo's a lot smarter than he lets on,_ she reflected. Meanwhile, Piper was starting to realize Leo's plan. "You—!"

"Are awesome? Thank you, but I already knew that." Suggested Leo, smirking. "Now, now, ladies, kiss and make up!" With lots of mutual mock-glaring at Leo and a _lot_ of apologizing, they did make up. They definitely didn't kiss, though.

* * *

Honestly, Annabeth didn't know why Leo wanted her help in the first place. He was amazing. (Not that she would ever say that out loud.) Long, nimble fingers working furiously, occasionally sending out a spark of flames, Leo did in just a minute what would've taken Annabeth at least ten to figure out. Within a few minutes, he constructed a sturdy Celestial bronze/Stygian iron/Imperial gold wire outline of a box, about a foot in size, explaining that it would "constrain the activity of the anti-listening gears to the specified area and amount of which the operator sets the levels to". Seriously. Those were his exact words. (When she asked for a normal-person explanation, he said, "Big box and magic wires: good. Tiny box: bad.") Annabeth cut out sheets of Celestial Bronze to create a rough casing for the outside, but Leo shook his head and showed her a much more efficient way to do so.

Leo was shown to Annabeth in a whole new light. Sure, she knew he was serious when working. But whereas she took a half-hour long break for food that was only supposed to be for 15 minutes (it didn't help that Percy whisked her away for a makeout session), Leo kept on working continuously. No breaks. At all.

"You know, Leo," Annabeth started, intending to voice some of her realizations.

"Yeah, I do know, you coiled the wires the wrong way. But if you just put the socket for the quartz on the other side, it'll work fine." He responded, not even looking up from his work, which was painstakingly crafting and sculpting a tiny quartz gear. Annabeth frowned. Leo was avoiding any talk about himself at all. (And if Annabeth was to be completely honest with herself, she wasn't entirely happy that Leo pointed out her mistake. _Hubris strikes again. Thanks, Athena._ ) But she didn't press the son of Hephaestus, and when he proudly announced that the device would be finished by the next morning, well, Annabeth _might've_ jumped and hugged him. _Maybe._ Just _maybe._ And when she drifted off to sleep that night, snuggled in Percy's strong arms to the gentle rocking of the ship, she was perfectly content.

* * *

Of course, that wouldn't last long. Annabeth was jolted awake rudely when Lyssa screamed, Percy cursed bloody murder, and a mermaid lamp fell over. _Note to self: As Percy who decorated his cabin with creepy life-size unrealistic naiads with lightbulbs sticking out of their heads._

"WAAAAAKE UP, DEMIGODS! Today is Day Three of Lyssaland, and Duel Number Five will begin shortly. Report to the training room—or should I say arena?—RIGHT NOW! But look presentable first! That means you, Percy and Annabeth!" Annabeth blushed. Percy was shirtless, and Annabeth was just wearing a gigantic, knee-length T-shirt. (It was a limited-edition size "Cyclops Small" "Eye am from Camp Half-Blood" novelty shirt from the camp store.) "Oh, and Valdez, GET SOME CLOTHES ON! Honestly! I'm immortal! I'll never be able to get that image out of my mind!" Percy snorted, and sat up, stretching lazily and pecking Annabeth on the cheek.

"We better get dressed, then." Annabeth said lightly. She was in an excellent mood, having thought of a plan in the middle of the night while Percy snored loudly. Not even her rude awakening could ruin her mood. But getting picked by Lyssa for the duel barely 24 hours after the last one? That would be a different story.

* * *

As soon as all the demigods trudged into the training room, with varying degrees of foot-dragging, Lyssa started talking. "Annabeth Chase and Leo Valdez will be today's victims! The second time for both of you! This will be so fun… the daughter of the so-called wisdom goddess and the son of the tinkerer!" giggled Lyssa. The other six demigods zoomed to the wall, and based on the fact that they all looked like gasping, winded fish, Annabeth concluded that Lyssa was very eager for this particular duel. That, and the fact that she was laughing madly.

"Hey, lady, how 'bout you shut up and let us live our lives?" Leo growled. His nose burst into flames. Leo blushed and patted it out.

"How 'bout… no?" Lyssa replied sassily, and Annabeth felt the sensation of Furores swooping around her, closer and closer. She tried in vain to fight it. She didn't want to be possessed again! _Stop, stop! Possess someone else, away from here! I hear that there are some nice Underworld spirits just_ dying _to be possessed!_ **(A/N: See what I did there? Underworld spirits dying? No?)** They've _got lots of Happy Meals there for you, too!_ She thought. (Nico had told her that ghosts liked Happy Meals, for some reason. Annabeth wasn't sure if that applied to spirits, but just in case…) the swirling paused momentarily.

 _Happy Meals? Lyssa never gives us Happy Meals! We want Happy Meals!_

 _Thank you, Nico,_ breathed Annabeth. But of course Lyssa ruined her chance at freedom.

 _No! The girl lies! Nobody in the Underworld has Happy Meals! Continue, my Furores!_ The swirling started again, and Annabeth felt that it would be so _easy_ to relinquish control of her mind and body, and just release her fury at Leo.

 _Who almost ruined the quest to defeat Gaea?_ The Furores whispered to her. _Leo did! Who's the useless seventh wheel? Leo is! Who felt like he was too good to talk to anyone or hang out while building the Argo II? Leo, Leo, Leo! All Leo! All his fault!_ And Annabeth exploded, in the manner that only Athena's kids could. With cold fury.

"You—I can't believe that once I thought you would be a good ally! You're useless. Psh, you're nothing. You almost ruined our quest by firing on New Rome! And to top it off, you're dangerous. Even more of a loose cannon than Percy!" Annabeth didn't see the hurt look on her boyfriend's face. Even if she had, she would've ignored it. "Gods, you murdered your _mother_! But that's not even the worst part. FIRING ON NEW ROME? YOU CAN'T BE TRUSTED! I HAD TO ASK FRANK TO WATCH YOU—" Frank looked extremely guilty. But Annabeth ignored that too. "I HAD TO ASK FRANK TO WATCH YOU, YOU KNOW WHY? Because… IT WAS ALL YOUR FAULT! And you thought you were too good to talk to any of us while building the Argo II, huh? Always ignoring our invitations? Always ignoring us?" Rage filled her body. The Furores had complete control.

"Seriously?" Leo raised an eyebrow. Anger distorted his features. " _You_ were the one ignoring me! I didn't eat for a week, building the ship. Did anyone notice? Of course not!" Jason and Piper looked stricken. The two combatants disregarded them. "If I got four hours of sleep a night it was an achievement!" Piper began silently sobbing. Leo took a step towards Annabeth, flames flickering through his hair. "I worked my butt off for six—freaking—months! And I'm very sorry that my getting possessed by an eidolon was a slight _inconvenience_ to you!" Annabeth blinked. Had she really ignored Leo for half a year? But the Furores whispered to her again.

 _It doesn't matter! The war was his fault! He deserves your revenge! Attack him!_ A primeval growl escaped Annabeth. She leaped at Leo. Tackling him felt so satisfying. And the crunch that was Leo's wrist? Eh. Collateral damage.

Leo yelled excruciatingly, clutching his wrist and rolling in agony, away from Annabeth. Random tendrils of fire licked the floor. Annabeth was one with the Furores again. Together, they stumbled through the flames, ignoring the heat and stabbing pain, towards the flaming demigod again. She cocked a fist, but Leo jumped up and lashed out first.

Annabeth doubled over, her breath knocked out of her. Who knew the scrawny mechanics could pack such a powerful punch? But she kicked wildly with her foot, and by pure luck, Leo fell over. Directly towards a pile of sharp, deadly swords. Wait—no! Leo grabbed Annabeth, and as he fell, she fell with him. Into the swords.

 **Reader's question: Which fight would you be more excited for: Percy and Nico, or Percy and Jason?**

 **Leave a reply in the reviews!**


	9. So You Have a Plan?

**Thanks for nearly 30 reviews! You guys are awesome!**

 **For the reader's question from last chapter: Fans of both fights, you'll get both :) They will be the last two fights, though, for... purposes.**

Annabeth

Annabeth flailed around desperately, but Leo's grip was strong. At the last possible moment, when Annabeth had already resigned herself to die by falling on a sword (How much more embarrassing and cliché could her fate possible be?), Leo twisted and the two demigods managed to fall to the side, though they both yelped in pain from scratches. Blood pooled on Annabeth's upper arms, and the sight of the red liquid cleared her mind. She felt the cold rage in her gut disappear with the Furores, leaving her breathless.

"Well played! Tomorrow will have two duels: one in the morning, and one extra duel afterwards, sometime in the day, in honor of Ouranos being chopped up! That's actually my birthday, too. Isn't that wonderful?" Annabeth felt sick. Lyssa continued cheerfully. "And after that, a duel a day! After _that_ … well, the Olympians will _have_ to take notice of me! Don't even think about calling for outside help, though. I've just put a block around the ship. Toodles!" Annabeth silently thanked Hephaestus for coming to the demigods' aid the day before. If he hadn't… she didn't even want to think about what could've happened. What might _still_ happen, in fact. Annabeth needed to tell the others her plan as soon as possible. Suddenly, a snapping sound caused the six restrained demigods to fall off of the wall. Another snap, and everyone was standing in the dining room. Annabeth suddenly became aware of a pounding in her head, and of the numerous burns and scratches littering her arms and legs. Gods of Olympus… she tried to avoid Leo's eyes. She was sure that if she met them, she would either break down, or scream bloody murder. Possibly both.

Frank gasped. The sound wasn't any more audible than the sound of a pin dropping, but it was as deafening as a gunshot in the unnatural quietness of eight severely ADHD demigods.

"Leo, Annabeth—we've got to get you to sick bay!" he announced, just as Leo moaned softly, clutching his wrist tightly and clenching his teeth together to keep from crying out. Annabeth winced, glancing at her own injuries. She'd need a _lot_ of ambrosia. Leo would need even more.

Percy nodded. He helped Annabeth get to the door gingerly, being careful not to touch any of Annabeth's burns. Annabeth definitely appreciated that, but… damn, her burns _hurt_. Jason followed them, dragging a pale Leo along, who kept cursing in Spanish.

As soon as they finally reached the sick bay, Annabeth saw black. And white.

* * *

 _The first thing Annabeth noticed was that the dream was different. Everything was black and white. She was back at Camp Half-Blood. But she was standing in a strange, unfamiliar cabin. It was full of weapons, hammers, and all sorts of tools, and one or two curtained-off beds were visible. Blueprints and drawings littered the tables and walls. What cabin was it? Suddenly, a figure stepped into view. Leo. He looked just as surprised as Annabeth felt to see her there._

 _"Annabeth?" he asked incredulously._

 _She gaped at him, "Leo? What is this?"_

 _"No idea…" he muttered. "Why the hell are we in a dream with each other in my cabin?" And then, even though the dream was in grayscale, Annabeth could've sworn on the Styx that Leo blushed. "That sounded different from what I meant…"_

 _Ignoring that, Annabeth thought that it made a lot of sense that they were in Cabin Nine. After all, Leo lived there. But Leo was right. The real question was, why were they in a dream, fully aware and interacting? Annabeth suddenly remembered something she'd read in a footnote of an old Greek book. "I think… did we pass out at the same time? That could've linked us in a dream, along with our injuries. Hypnos doesn't always control or even monitor his powers that well, even when there's not a goddess like Lyssa blocking off the Argo from the gods. I mean, he's usually sleeping and all."_

 _"Uh, right," Leo smiled half-heartedly. "This is kind of embarrassing, though. This is like, the second time in, what, two days? That I've passed out, I mean. Well anyway, I might as well take this chance to tell you I'm sorry, without everyone else breathing down my neck. Frank maybe literally, if he decides to turn into a dragon or something," he joked weakly._

 _"_ You're _sorry?" Annabeth ignored his joke. She couldn't believe her ears. "I started it! I should be the one that's sorry!"_

 _"Well, technically Lyssa started it." Leo smirked slightly, his confidence boosted. He quickly became somber again. "I burned you…"_

 _"And I broke you wrist," retorted Annabeth. Why was the mechanic so down on himself?_

 _"No. I mean, I_ burned _you," he said softly. And Annabeth understood. She started forward, intending to hug him, but the world became colorful again just as she did so._

* * *

Annabeth! Are you all right?!" A gorgeous boy with messy black hair and bright, sea-green eyes leaned over her. Percy. Annabeth nodded weakly and took in her surroundings. She was lying in a bed. The sick bay. She glanced at Leo, who was already sitting up, exchanging jokes with Jason and Piper. He caught her eye and grinned broadly.

Annabeth smiled back. Percy was adorably confused. "Uh… weren't you guys trying to kill each other, like, ten minutes ago?" she smiled and kissed him. Leo was almost finished with the anti-listening device, Annabeth had a plan, and Percy was with her. The world was a wonderful place at that moment. Well, excluding Lyssa.

"We figured it out in a dream," Annabeth explained. Percy frowned and pouted.

" _We've_ never shared a dream before!" he complained, but he was smiling. Annabeth had to roll her eyes.

"You're such a Seaweed Brain," and she kissed him again.

* * *

Later, Annabeth was chatting to Frank about the fascinating wonders of modern architecture on the Argo II's deck (Well, she was chatting. Frank looked half-asleep, and was indeed fighting hard to stay awake.) until Leo barged onto the deck, whooping loudly with the anti-listening machine in one hand. Annabeth was reminded ridiculously of an athlete holding the Olympic torch.

"I DID IT!" he yelled, beaming. Percy stumbled up to the deck from his cabin, yawning widely. Piper and Hazel stopped sparring and walked over. Nico climbed off of the crow's nest, where he'd been for most of the afternoon. And Jason followed after Leo, grumbling something along the lines of how he did some of the work, too. Leo laughed good-naturedly. "Yep, Sparky, holding the hammer and hitting stuff for me was real hard work!" he gestured to his wrist, which was still bandaged heavily, even after several squares of ambrosia.

Suddenly: "WHAT IS THAT?!" someone screeched loudly. Annabeth looked around wildly, her hand creeping towards her dagger. Nico already had his sword out. None of the demigods spoke. "WHAT IS THAT, VALDEZ?" the voice yelled again. _Oh. Lyssa._

"Uh…" Leo trailed off. "It's my broken wrist?" Annabeth, Jason, Nico, Hazel, and Frank facepalmed. Percy was too busy yawning to facepalm.

"It's a jewelry box for his girlfriend, Calypso. What does it look like?" Piper interrupted, sighing dramatically. "They're so _cute_ together!" she squealed. Personally, Annabeth thought Piper was laying on her kid-of-Aphrodite act rather thickly, but whatever.

"Ha! The stupidity of demigods never fails to amuse me!" Annabeth's eyes widened. Did Lyssa know what the unassuming box _really_ was? "It's not like you'll ever get a chance to give that to the traitor goddess!" Annabeth relaxed. _Thank the gods. Well, actually, just thank Hephaestus!_ She thought somewhat bitterly. After a few moments of silence, once Annabeth was sure that Lyssa was gone, she cleared her throat.

"We need to meet in my cabin. Now."

* * *

"Leo, could you set up the… uh, jewelry box?" she requested, once everyone was in her cabin with the door shut.

"I'll help, I know a lot about jewelry," offered Hazel. Leo and Annabeth both nodded. Leo pressed a button, and suddenly a light humming sound emitted from the strange anti-listening device. "Is that supposed to be happening?" Hazel asked nervously, eyeing the device with obvious distrust.

"Yeah, it won't accidentally blow us all up or something, right?" added Frank.

"Nope, it won't. Only the person sitting directly facing it will be vaporized," Percy butted in cheerfully. Nico, who was sitting right in front of the humming creation, jumped back several feet before giving Percy a death glare.

"Jeez, guys, it's just gonna block out our sounds," explained Leo, plopping himself down on the floor. "And I recorded some of your conversations—" (Nico looked like he was about to strangle both Percy and Leo.) "So if Lyssa tries to eavesdrop on us, she'll just hear _this_." He connected a few mysterious green and orange wires, and suddenly Jason's voice boomed out of the device.

"I want real _food_ for lunch!" Jason blushed as his amplified voice burst out from the machine, sounding rather whiny. **(Sorry Jason fans. But come on, anyone would sound whiny saying _that_.)**

"Read food is _boring_!" That was Percy. The Percy sitting next to Annabeth nodded in agreement with himself.

"Blue gelato _isn't_ food!" Frank made noises of agreement with the Jason on the recording. He was lactose intolerant, remembered Annabeth.

"It seems like anything that _actually_ tastes good isn't food!" Percy complained, just as his voice on the recording said so.

Piper burst out laughing as the tape ended, and the rest of the demigods, even Nico, joined in. "Gods, when did you even record that?"

"On the original Argo II. I found the recordings in the engine room. That was Percy and Jason arguing over blue gelato for lunch." Leo snickered. "Anyway, Lyssa will just hear stuff like that coming from this room."

Annabeth nodded gratefully. "Now, for the plan…"

 **"Athena always has a plan." -Annabeth**

 **Hmm, what's Athena come up with now? Next chapter: Jason's POV. And if you've been paying attention to how I arrange my chapters' POVs (Why two Annabeth chapters in a row?), you should be able to figure out who the fight is between.**


	10. Learning How Grandma Puts on Her Armor

**Time to do disclaimers!**

 **1\. No, I'm flattered, but I am not a gray-haired man named Rick Riordan. Therefore, I do not own the PJO or HOO series.**

 **2\. Sorry, I don't own Superman either. (I know... the sadness...)**

 **3\. I have no idea if this "grandma putting on her armor" song is real, but it's mentioned in the books. I don't own it, if it's real.**

 **4\. I don't own an old song called "Kumbaya", either. If I did, I would charge people every time they sang it.**

 **Now that that's over with, on to the story! Can't believe I'm already on the tenth chapter...**

Jason

Jason really didn't want to go to sleep that night. Lyssa always appeared in his dreams. And that was definitely _not_ a good thing. He tried to stay awake by listening to Leo do who-knows-what in the engine room, just adjacent to Jason's cabin, but even that stopped eventually, replacing by very loud snoring and mumblings of "put the clutch in the socket, but not too much pressure when inserting it".

 _Why don't any of the others have dreams with Lyssa in them? Why just me? What's Lyssa's plan? Why…_ Unwillingly, Jason drifted off to sleep.

 _This time, Lyssa was in her Roman form, Furor. Shadowy spirits circled around her, encasing her in a cloak of darkness. She had no lower legs, or if she did, they just melted into a cloud of blackness. But her face was the most horrifying part. Her eyebrows were thin, arched, and smoky, and her eyes; her eyes were just two never-ending whirlpools of white smoke. The rest of her face—Jason couldn't even describe it. Wisps of shadow crawled along her nose and mouth, giving her an eerie snakelike appearance._

 _"What do you want this time?" he managed to say, despite the terror Furor instilled in him. Jason's previous dreams had either been with Lyssa, who made him relive his worst memories and nightmares over and over again, or with Furor, who tried to drive him to the edge of insanity. Well, in the dream, anyway. Once he woke up he was fine, except when he remembered. But as bad as Lyssa was, Furor was infinitely worse. No, it was the other way around. Or was it..? But either way, both were terrible. If they combined into one being… Jason didn't want to think about it._

 _"I knew you were smart!" purred Furor. Crap. She could hear his thoughts. "I most certainly can, demigod. Now, as for what I want… you are a Roman hero. Praetor of Camp Jupiter, defeater of the black throne of Krios, and all that. But you are also a son of Jupiter, and your sister is a daughter of Zeus. You found your way to Camp Half-Blood. You are unique, even among demigods such as Perseus Jackson. And a son of Poseidon is simply not as effective as a son of Jupiter, the king of the gods. In addition, your family is Roman_ and _Greek. You yourself decided to stay in the Greek camp for the majority of time after the Giant War. Thus,_ you _are both Roman and Greek."_

 _"Well, that's nice. Now tell me what the point of this is already!" Jason shouted, but he had a bad feeling in his gut about what Lyssa/Furor wanted._

 _"I want to unite my aspects, both Roman and Greek. I will be very powerful—even more powerful than my old master, Dionysus! Bacchus! Both of them!" Jason couldn't believe what he was hearing. Uniting Greek and Roman demigods was hard enough, even though that was the only way to win the Giant War._ No _gods dared to try to unify both aspects of themselves. They could live in harmony, sure. But unite themselves? Not even the king of the gods himself dared try. Furor's form suddenly flickered, and for a second she became a huge mass of eight-foot tall shadows. Then she changed back. "Curse the Greek form," she grumbled. "Just a giant shadow? Really? Anyway, my dear hero… the bottom line is that I want your form to help me fuse."_

 _"My_ form _?" Jason stepped back slightly. Furor was crazy._

 _"Yes!" she was getting impatient, and that was never good when it came to divine beings._

 _"I thought you just wanted a throne on Mount Olympus…" Jason stalled anyway._

 _"Only_ part _of my plan, foolish son of Jupiter. The other demigods are not really needed to help me merge. But_ you _are. I will use your form that is both Greek and Roman to become so myself, and then I will discard your body. Perhaps you will survive the experience, perhaps not. But if you work with me… the others will be released back to Camp Half-Blood safely. If you don't…" Furor let the threat hang in the air._

 _Jason thought quickly. Eight demigods—no, seven if Furor/Lyssa took his form—would not be able to take on the goddess, even with Annabeth's plan, since the spirit of fury might not let them have a chance the execute the plan. In fact, Annabeth's plan wouldn't get a chance to work if he refused the spirit. The only way was to sacrifice himself. Hopefully, he would survive._

 _Almost imperceptibly, he nodded slowly. Furor chuckled._

 _"I, the goddess Furor, or Lyssa, swear on the River Styx that your friends will be safely returned to camp if you swear to give your form to me," she said. Muffled thunder boomed._

 _"I, Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, swear on the River Styx to give my form to you, if my friends will be safely returned to Camp Half-Blood." Jason choked out. In the dream, thunder boomed again._

* * *

"Jason! _Jason_!" Piper was hovering over him anxiously. "I got you a muffin. You missed breakfast. Lyssa's telling us to go to the training room now."

Jason tried to smile (and was pretty sure that he failed), and wolfed down the muffin, after giving Piper a quick peck on the cheek. She left to let him get dressed, and he pulled on the first things he saw: a Superman T-shirt and wrinkled jeans. _Ha-ha, very funny, Leo or Percy or whoever got me the shirt…_ Jason was pretty sure he'd never set eyes on the shirt before. Leo (and Percy, for that matter) had warped senses of humor. For one thing, Jason didn't even have brown hair. And... that was pretty much it.

As soon as Jason stepped into the training room, he got blown by a gust of white, smoky wind to the wall. Annabeth, Hazel, Percy, and Nico were against the walls as well. Piper… he swallowed hard. Piper was standing, alone, in the middle of the room. _Holy Jupiter… who's she facing? Only Leo and Frank aren't here yet, but what issues could she possibly have with either of them?_ Right on cue, the two boys stepped in, talking about… weasels?

Almost instantly, Frank got carried by the unnaturally white wind to a place on the wall, hung like a trophy, right next to Jason. _Schist. Leo and Piper…_ Jason's best friend and his girlfriend were fighting. Annabeth and Hazel both shot him pitying looks, but Annabeth immediately started mouthing something to Leo and Piper frantically. _The plan. Remember the plan!_

Piper nodded, and Leo twitched his eyebrows slightly to show he understood. And then Piper took a deep breath, and started screaming hysterically. If Jason didn't know any better, he would've sworn that she was terrified out of her mind. But it was all part of the plan. Hopefully Lyssa wouldn't get _too_ mad. The key word: hopefully.

"LYSSA! Why would you do this?! Leo's my best friend!" she shrieked, her choppy brown hair swinging in a braid.

"Yeah! Pipes is one of my best friends, too!" Leo crossed his arms. "Why aren't you answering us?!"

"Are you scared? Of we _puny_ demigods?" taunted Piper. Jason had to admire their bravery. They were spewing insults out faster than he could fully process them, and their tag-teaming was very effective. And add that to Piper's charmspeak, and you get one very pissed-off goddess. Lyssa would be furious. _Furious… oh, so_ that's _where the word comes from! As if gods need any more ego boosting,_ thought Jason. _Ugh. Stupid ADHD._ Jason turned his attention back to the fight.

"Why don't you show your ugly face?" Leo insulted. "Or do you feel too _threatened_ , Ms. I-need-serious-anger-management-classes?" He began doing a pretty good imitation of Lyssa's voice and high-pitched laughter.

Suddenly, Lyssa appeared, a giant shadow that was even more terrifying in the daytime than it was in Jason's dream. Her eyes—dark sockets—blazed with fury. Literally. Furores churned all around her. "You—you _dare_ to—?!"

"Yep!" Leo smirked gleefully, and started singing something. It sounded vaguely like one of the songs that Jason heard Camp Half-Blood sing at the campfire, about how grandma puts on her armor, or something like that. Piper joined in, and it sounded… very odd, to say the least. Leo's voice was off-key and very, very loud. Piper's voice was melodic and clear, and definitely not as loud as Leo's. But there was no mistaking the fact that they seemed to be having a great time, dancing around Lyssa like she wasn't there at all. Jason thought they were being too risky. _Gods, Lyssa's getting_ really _ticked off…_ Jason watched as Percy grinned and shot a thumbs-up at Annabeth. So far, her plan was working: make Lyssa angry. Lyssa growled, and dozens upon dozens of Furores swirled out of the shadowy being. They encircled Piper first, then Leo. Jason tried to struggle against his invisible bonds, but to no avail. He could only watch helplessly as the Furores filled the room, around and around and around they swooped. Leo's brown eyes, full of mischief, became white smoke. Piper's kaleidoscope eyes, that Jason loved, became white smoke. The room was full of the white smoke. Everywhere: white smoke.

"Some friend you are! Not even checking up on me!" yelled smoky-eyed Leo suddenly. Then his brown eyes came back for a split second. "And that's how Grandma puts on her armor!" he sang discordantly, before his eyes became white again. "I hate you, McLean!"

"Like I care about what _you_ think!" scoffed Piper with white eyes. But Piper with color-changing eyes started singing a verse from "Kumbaya". Lyssa seemed frustrated, and started yelling at the Furores to "work faster". Her concentration went away from the other demigods, and with a mighty heave, Jason jumped off the wall. Everyone else followed his example, and soon the room was in complete chaos. Piper kept singing "Kumbaya", Leo was belting out a Spanish song loudly, and everyone else was stomping around and cursing, including Lyssa. Jason could barely see a foot in front of him, the smoke was so thick. Then he heard Leo yelling insults at Lyssa and Piper, alternately. Piper was doing the same, only with Leo and Lyssa. The whole room echoed with confusing shouting and thumps as people bumped into each other:

"You never checked up on me while I was working, like, _twenty-two_ hours a day on the Argo II!" Jason winced in guilt.

"Someone's singin', Lord, kumbaya… well, that's 'cause you're just an annoying repair boy that will always be the seventh wheel!" Jason guessed that Piper had been overwhelmed by the Furores while in the middle of a verse.

"Lyssa is even suckier than Dirt Face!" Was that Leo, or Percy?

"How _dare_ you?" Definitely Lyssa.

"Annabeth was right! Aphrodite kids _are_ useless! No, they're not! Yes they are! No! Yes! _No they're not! Piper is awesome!_ No, Aphrodite kids are useless!" Despite the tense situation, Jason had to choke back a laugh at the sight of Leo fighting, seemingly with himself.

"Someone's laughin', Lord, kum—hey! Who is that?" Jason found Piper's arm and Leo's head, and dragged them to the door, the other demigods following close behind, leaving Lyssa to yell obscenities to herself.

 **No! Jason! Don't sacrifice yourself!**


	11. Why Can't Frank Hear Anything?

**Long time no see? Come on, I was gone for less than a week! Thanks for all the favs and follows, though!**

 **Here is... CHAPTER 11!**

Frank

Frank was the last one out of the room, and he forcefully slammed the door behind him. Lyssa wailed and a loud _snap_ told the demigods that the Furores were gone. Another snap, and they saw the white smoke fade away into nothingness. Lyssa was gone, at least from her physical form.

 _We did it,_ Frank thought in a stupefied daze. _We really did it!_ But of course Lyssa had to interrupt and burst his bubble.

"You may have won the battle, but the war is still mine!" roared Lyssa. But despite her confident words, Frank noted that she didn't dare appear in her physical form. Or perhaps she was too weak to do so. "The next duel today shall be even more painful because of this! I will even swear on the Styx to make it so!" An ominous rumble of distant, slightly muffled thunder shook the ship, and Hazel clutched Frank for balance. He steadied her, but his mind was elsewhere, racing along at speeds that even the easygoing Canadian police could not simply ignore.

 _She swore on the Styx… and the duel could be any time today. Including the next duel, there's only 4 more duels, and three more days to escape after today. We need to form a plan, and fast._ Aloud he just said, "We should… uh…" Frank couldn't think of a good excuse quickly enough, and he shot a panicked glance at Annabeth.

"We should finish that truth-or-dare game we started yesterday!" Leo jumped in. "Let's go to your cabin, Annabeth. All the... _stuff_ … is set up there!" Frank smiled gratefully at the son of Hephaestus, but couldn't help wondering: _truth or dare?!_

* * *

"Okay, Frank, truth or dare?" Leo grinned.

"Uh… wasn't that just a cover?" Frank questioned, tilting his head. It was hard to tell with Leo.

"Leo!" Annabeth glared at Leo, who promptly hid behind Jason, who didn't even seem to notice. "Alright, let's get down to business now. That was pretty successful for our first try—" (Cue Leo and Piper high-fiving) "—But for the plan to work, we need to get Lyssa to appear more often, and preferably in a different form than the giant shadow. We can't exactly capture a shadow in a trap…"

"So basically we need to get her even angrier?" Piper asked doubtfully, leaning forward.

"Or…" Nico played absently with his hair. "Lyssa is the spirit of fury, madness, and stuff like that. So she would hate—"

"Peacefulness, happiness, and logic!" Annabeth started scribbling something down madly onto a notepad. "And obviously her Furores will be, well, similar to Lyssa, so we can apply the same strategy to the Furores!"

" _Obviously?_ " someone asked. Annabeth ignored the person.

"What if we can convince the Furores to help us instead of Lyssa?" Frank said, just as Annabeth mused:

"They would be a great asset, and we could get their attention by being peaceful and logical and all that…" Frank blushed. He was sure that someone was going to make some sort of comment. Surprisingly, no one did, except Hazel, who mouthed _War gods' kids_ to a faintly amused Nico. "I don't think the Furores are very devoted to Lyssa. I tried to tempt them with Happy Meals, and if Lyssa hadn't interfered, I think they might've actually helped us," the daughter of Athena explained. Frank opened his mouth to say something. "Don't ask about the Happy Meals." Frank closed his mouth. Hazel giggled.

After some more planning, the group decided that they would apply the same strategy that Leo and Piper used to coerce Lyssa to appear, and they would attempt to win over the Furores while Lyssa was distracted by something. Then, they would capture Lyssa in some sort of trap. Annabeth promised she would "figure something out" by the next day.

But strangely enough, Frank noticed that Percy and Jason were both unusually silent. Frank glanced to Percy first. Sure, he'd gotten to know Jason better. But Frank could gauge what Percy was thinking more easily. Percy was an open book. Well, usually…

The son of the sea was resting his chin on one hand, staring off into the distance at… nothing in particular. His face was blank, devoid of any emotion. _That's odd,_ Frank thought. He shifted slightly to glance at Jason. The former praetor was repeatedly tracing letters on his leg. Frank tried to decipher the Latin quickly enough to catch up to Jason's furious writing, without much success. _L something, s, and then a. Lyssa?_ Jason started a new word, and then another. They didn't make much sense, or maybe Frank just read them wrong. Sacrifice, Piper, danger, goddess, help, form, secret, and shape? The words made zero sense to Frank. _Did I read them wrong?_ He wondered. Frank didn't have dyslexia, unlike most demigods (He got lactose intolerance instead. Yay.), but Jason had been writing the letters seriously quickly. Frank didn't even think Jason knew he was writing them. _I'll talk to Percy and Jason later._

* * *

 **IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT:** "Training room! NOW!" Frank woke with a start and tried to jump out of his bed, but realized he couldn't move. He transformed into some large bird of prey during the night, and now his feet (talons?) were clamped tightly to the headboard of the bed. _Come on! Stupid talons!_ Then he fell onto the bed, changing fluidly to a human again. He pulled on sneakers, an SPQR shirt, and olive-green cargo shorts, and headed out into the hallway, blinking in an effort to stay awake. Hazel, Nico, and Jason emerged from their cabins as well. Hazel was obviously only half-awake, based on her stumbling around like she was half-drunk (Frank knew only because of the time Dakota had found a secret stash of prohibited booze in some old crate.), so Frank supported her, and Nico was… well, _Nico._ But Jason worried Frank. He didn't appear to have slept at all. _After the fight,_ Frank decided. Just then, the rest of the demigods—Percy, Annabeth, Piper, and Leo—trudged out of their cabins (in Leo's case, the engine room), too, with varying degrees of bedhead.

"Let's go," Percy mumbled resignedly, rubbing his eyes. Silently, they followed him to the training room.

 _Click._ The door swung shut as Piper, the last to enter, came in. There was no bragging done by Lyssa this time; no grand announcement of the two fighters. Annabeth just became surrounded by the Furores with no ceremony. Percy started forward angrily, but flew back against the wall roughly. And then… _Hazel!_

Frank charged to her without thinking, but Lyssa's wind of madness blew him back on the wall. His shoulder crunched against it sickeningly. He tried to clutch it, but it hurt too much. Frank couldn't look at Hazel or the others, who were already on the wall, based on two or three yelps of pain that stopped abruptly. He shut his eyes. Frank didn't want too—couldn't—wouldn't—see this fight. _Please, let our plan work, so they don't have to fight!_ Frank prayed silently, squeezing his eyes shut. But he could hear Lyssa's oath playing in his brain on repeat, taunting him. _The next duel shall be even more painful… I swear on the Styx to make it so!_ Then the sounds began.

Screams. Yells. Cries of pain. A thump. An accusation. Hazel screaming. Annabeth screaming. The clash of daggers. Loud panting. Running footsteps. Lyssa laughing. Another yell. A shrieking match. More thuds—two in succession. A barrage of what sounded like rocks being thrown. Whistles in the air—swords. More heavy footsteps. Then, a sickening crunch. Silence. The silence was worse than the screaming. Frank clenched his jaw shut.

Frank _wouldn't_ open his eyes. He wouldn't give Lyssa the satisfaction of that. He _wouldn't_.

But the silence continued. Dread settled in the pit of Frank's stomach. He counted the seconds. _Fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty. Sixty-one…_ he swallowed anxiously. _Sixty-two, sixty-three, sixty-four, sixty-five._ Was Hazel all right? Was Annabeth okay? What was happening? _Sixty-six, sixty-seven, sixty-eight, sixty-nine, seventy._ He couldn't stand it anymore. Frank opened his eyes.

At first Frank thought he was hallucinating. He blinked. Nope. He blinked again. Same thing. He decided he wasn't hallucinating. But it made no sense. Annabeth and Hazel were shouting—at each other or Lyssa, Frank couldn't tell. But that wasn't the bizarre part. That was the fact that nothing was coming out of their mouths. Frank shook his head, trying to clear it. Still the same thing. Did Lyssa block the other demigods' hearing of the fight, too? But that made no sense. Piper's eyes were wide as she stared at the fight, and she was watching intently. But Nico—what was wrong with him?

The son of Hades was groping the air with his somehow freed hands. Almost like he couldn't see anything. Like he couldn't see anything… and Frank couldn't hear anything…

Frank looked around wildly. Leo—holy Mars! He was kicking his feet—Lyssa must have freed those—against the wall, trying reach his hands. His arms wouldn't work! Piper—she was fine a minute ago. No longer, there seemed to be something wrong with her mouth. _Can't speak,_ guessed Frank. The odd thing was that Jason and Percy seemed fine. Just then, Frank felt a vibration from the wall. Everyone else were all listening intently. _Lyssa's talking!_ He realized with horror. The Furores dispersed. Jason and Percy jumped off the wall and helped everyone else off (Leo and Nico tripped over each other). And the only thing Frank could think was, _Lyssa makes good on her promises._ And he wasn't sure why, but he felt uneasy about that.

 **Ooh... We know about Jason, but Percy? Has Lyssa gotten to him too? Only the next chapters will tell...**


	12. Sacrifices, Surprises, and Shrimp

**I'm back! Woo! This chapter won't have a fight in it, but the next chapter will.**

Piper

Piper knew something was up with Jason. But she couldn't _talk_. It was immensely frustrating and irritating for her. It was the morning after the middle-of-the-night fight, and whatever Lyssa had done was still in effect. Only Hazel, Annabeth, Jason, and Percy hadn't been affected—Hazel and Annabeth were spared because they were in the actual duel, Lyssa had explained. But why not the two others? (Not that Piper _wanted_ them to be cursed, but why would Lyssa pass up a chance to torture two more demigods?) Lyssa completely skipped over that bit. And Piper was sure it had something to do with Jason's strange behavior. But she couldn't confront him directly since she couldn't talk or write fast enough to force him to tell her. She couldn't even use her charmspeak! Normally, Piper wouldn't even consider using her charmspeak on her friends intentionally to find out their secrets, but this situation was anything but normal.

 _Don't complain, even if it is to yourself, McLean,_ Piper told herself. Frank was even more frustrated than she was, not being able to hear anyone. Nico had already tripped at least three times just on the way to the dining room. And Leo was impatiently trying to instruct Jason on how to build a device that would allow Leo to eat without using his hands. Annabeth and Percy were trying to find a cure, while Hazel was busy directing Nico on where to put his fork, so he wouldn't accidentally stab himself while eating.

"How in the name of Zeus' underwear does Lyssa have the power to do this?!" Leo burst out angrily. "I thought she was the goddess of rabies and stuff, not… _this_!" Piper nodded sympathetically. How could one minor goddess have so much power?

"Well, she's also the spirit of madness, and I guess this could be counted as madness," Annabeth frowned. "But _why_ would she do this?"

"She did swear on the Styx to make the duel nasty," Hazel pointed out.

"But still…" Annabeth trailed off, casting a glance at Percy. Piper did the same with Jason. They were both acting so oddly. And Piper was pretty sure that Jason was having nightmares. One night, she'd heard a muffled scream from his cabin—something along the lines of "uniting aspects… sacrifice… son of Jupiter". Piper had been about to ask Jason about that, but then Lyssa took away her power of speech. But what if that _wasn't_ a coincidence? What if Lyssa had made _sure_ she couldn't confront Jason or use her charmspeak? What if Leo losing the use of his arms wasn't a random choice, either? The demigods were mostly replying on him to create a trap to capture Lyssa. What if Nico and Frank losing their sight and hearing, respectively, wasn't a coincidence, either?

She discreetly nudged Leo. He turned to Piper, and she mouthed, _We need to have a meeting._ Without _Percy or Jason._ His eyes widened in understanding, and he cleared his throat loudly.

"Hey, Percy, Jason? Can you guys go onto the deck and keep a lookout for a monster? Festus told me earlier that there's a squad of giant sea shrimp heading towards us, sometime within the hour. It'll be easiest for you two to defeat them," Leo explained smoothly.

"Shouldn't we all be figuring out a cure?" Percy frowned. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"Do you want us all to be eaten by giant shrimp, Seaweed Brain? We can search for a cure while you guys defend the ship," she kissed him lightly.

The two demigods pushed their chairs aside reluctantly, and went up on deck together. But Piper got the feeling that they were secretly relieved to escape the close scrutiny of the other demigods. It was hard to not notice that Percy and Jason weren't acting like their usual selves.

* * *

"What in Hades is going on with them?" Annabeth crossed her arms as soon as the last demigod trooped into her room. Piper mimed writing, and Annabeth gave her a sheet of paper ripped from a notepad.

 _Jason was having nightmares before. Something about uniting something and sacrifices,_ she scribbled, handing the paper to Frank to read out loud.

"Jason was having nightmares before, and it was something about uniting something and sacrifice," he read loudly and slowly, and Piper winced. _It must be strange to read out something without hearing yourself speak._

"Percy refused to sleep with me after the first few nights, and he didn't tell me why," Annabeth mused, before realizing what she'd said and blushing. Piper would've squealed (thanks, Aphrodite genes) but… well, she couldn't. Leo snorted, and Nico smirked. Hazel and Frank both just kind of sat there awkwardly; Hazel because she wasn't entirely comfortable, being from a different time period and all, and Frank because he had no idea what Annabeth said. He was definitely not used to lip-reading.

"Could it be because of their dreams?" Hazel wondered, tapping her chin.

"You know, one night I heard thunder," Leo said thoughtfully, jiggling his legs. "It was coming from their cabins."

"Maybe Jason just got mad or something?" suggested Nico. "He is the son of Jupiter…" _When Jason's mad he uses lightning, not thunder, if he uses his power at all,_ Piper thought.

"No, it was from _both_ their cabins," Leo shook his head. "It sounded kind of like when Lyssa swore on the River Styx—you know, muffled thunder…"

Piper's eyes widened. The pieces were falling together to form a puzzle she didn't altogether like. _Swearing on the River Styx… sacrifice… in a dream… uniting aspects… Lyssa…I_

The sound of a pen being uncapped startled her. She whipped around nervously. It was just Frank, writing furiously. _It's hard to talk for him_ , Piper realized He finished, ripped the paper off, and passed it to Hazel, whose face went slack as she read, and placed it on Leo's legs for him to read with trembling fingers. Leo's face contorted as he attempted to decipher the writing, but Piper knew the exact moment he finished reading it: he kicked it onto the floor, where it fluttered towards Piper, like a tumbleweed in Arizona.

"Mierda **(A/N: That's Spanish for "shit")** … what the hell, Sparky?" he cursed. Piper picked up the paper hesitantly. Leo only cursed in Spanish when it was really, really bad. Meaning, Piper almost never heard him do it.

 _Yesterday, Jason was unconsciously tracing words onto his leg._ That wasn't so bad. But Piper got the feeling she didn't want to know the rest. She swallowed and read on. _The list of words: Lyssa, sacrifice, Piper, danger, goddess, help, form, secret, shape._ There was one more line, but the letters swam around, eluding capture. Piper concentrated harder, and the words came into sharp focus. _I wasn't sure, but now I think he wrote, "swore on the Styx"._

 _On the Styx… he swore on the Styx. Oh, gods, what did you do, Jason?_ Piper gave the paper to Annabeth slowly, unable to tear her eyes away from those words: swore on the Styx.

Annabeth gasped, and read it out loud for the benefit of Nico, who sat back and said tiredly, "There's no way to reverse the oath. It's completely binding. But maybe it doesn't mean what we think it means…"

"And Percy swore too?" Annabeth asked, ignoring Nico, brief dash of optimism. Nico was silent for a moment, probably delving deep into the secrets of the Underworld. When he spoke, Annabeth visibly deflated.

"He did."

"Why would you do it, Percy?" she groaned. "I told you your fatal flaw was _fatal_! Why, Seaweed Brain?" she rubbed her temple.

"His fatal flaw?" Leo asked, puzzled.

"Athena told him his fatal flaw is his loyalty to his friends. To save his friends, he would sacrifice the world." An uneasy silence greeted the statement.

"And Jason…" Leo sucked in a breath. "He's really… Roman." Hazel and Frank both raised their eyebrows at him.

"No, I mean, like… he's got a huge sense of duty and honor. He would be just the type to sacrifice himself for others."

"Like _you_?" Annabeth said exactly what Piper wanted to say. Leo smiled crookedly.

"Touché." But before anyone else could say anything, there was a knock on the door, and Jason stepped in, followed by Percy.

"Leo, I don't think there's any shrimp monsters attacking—" Piper jumped to her feet and glared at Jason. She _needed_ to be able to talk. She _had_ to. So she did.

"What the HELL were you thinking, Jason Grace?!"

 **Go, Piper! Next chapter will be posted on Thursday/Friday.**

 **On another note: I hit the 20k word mark! :D**


	13. The Flaming Avenger

**I obviously own HoO and PJO.**

 **Rick: Uh, no...**

 **Fine. I don't own HoO or PJO. Rude!**

Leo

Leo could finally understand what the others had felt like when he sacrificed himself in order to defeat Gaea. He wanted to punch Jason's face in. And Percy's. But mostly Jason's. Except, you know, Lyssa didn't want him to be able to do that, apparently. And there was also the fact that both of them could probably beat Leo up blindfolded…

Luckily, it seemed like Piper was going to do his punching for him. "What the hell were you thinking, Jason Grace?!" she yelled at Jason, getting in his face.

"Go, Pipes!" Leo cheered, grinning. But a sudden thought struck him. _Wait a minute…_ "Hey, how come you can talk?!" Piper froze, her brow furrowing.

"I—I don't know…" she stammered.

"But that's awesome! Tell me how so that I can use my arms again!" exclaimed Leo, jumping to his feet excitedly.

"I just really wanted to talk, like I _needed_ to, and then… well, I did," she hesitantly explained, scrunching up her face. Leo could actually understand that. It was the power of will. But Piper was so much stronger than he was; Leo doubted it would work for him. And then, another thought suddenly occurred to him.

"What _were_ you thinking, Superman? Kelp Head?" Leo would've crossed his arms if he could, but since he couldn't, he settled for tapping his foot. The other demigods looked bemused (like they'd forgotten all about Percy and Jason, which was not entirely impossible), then they got what Leo called the lightbulb-moment-look on their faces. Leo smirked. _More demigods fall prey to ADHD._

Jason hesitated, glancing at Piper's expression. Genuine confusion, concern, anger, frustration, sympathy—Leo could easily read her emotions. He hoped they looked threatening enough for Jason to spill. Meanwhile, Percy was still stubbornly standing rigidly. Annabeth sighed impatiently.

"Look, Seaweed Brain, if you're not going to tell us, we'll make you," she glared. The son of Poseidon remained obstinate. "No kisses for a week, either!" Annabeth added. Percy looked tempted, but still shook his head. Annabeth, Piper, and Hazel shared a glance that seemed to contain a whole conversation. What was up with that? Were they plotting to get Percy and Jason to tell all? Were they just telling each other, _Percy is so stupid_? Was it some sort of secret girl communication that no males were allowed to access? Actually, that would be kind of cool. And annoying, of course. Anyway… Hazel nodded at Piper, Annabeth jerked her chin, and then Piper steeled herself.

"Jason and Percy! Tell us WHY YOU'VE BEEN ACTING SO WEIRDLY!" Her charmspeak was so powerful, it made Leo want to spill every secret he ever had, and it wasn't even directed at him! Jason and Percy had no chance whatsoever, forget about being sons of two of the most powerful gods in existence.

Jason started babbling about his dreams with Lyssa/Furor, with Percy chiming in occasionally to describe the goddess' forms in more detail. Leo felt like a bad friend for smiling when Percy described Furor. _Who smiles when their friends are telling about how they're getting visited by a sadistic goddess in their dreams?!_ But Furor was humanoid—that meant that Leo could capture her!

And then they started talking about Lyssa's deal. And the oaths sworn on the River Styx. And her ultimate plan to unite her Greek and Roman aspects. Leo tensed up. " _Que demonios_!" **(A/N: "What the hell?" in Spanish)** he spat. He wasn't the only one, not by a long shot. Piper was cursing in something that sounded like French, Annabeth was yelling in Greek, Nico muttered something darkly in Italian, and even Hazel joined in, saying something in Latin that made Frank stare, even as he was mouthing the same thing. _What the hell were they thinking? Scratch that, they obviously weren't!_

"Wait!" the various curses stopped abruptly. "Tell me the _exact_ wording of your oaths!" Piper ordered the two sons of the Big Three.

"I swear to give my form to you—" Leo banged his head on a nearby table—"If my friends will be safe," Percy said, his eyes dulling to a pale green as he fell under the effects of charmspeak. Jason nodded, agreeing with him. _Selfless bastards!_ _Why've they got to be so damn loyal and stuff?_

"How does that help?" Hazel asked, looking shaken up.

"Maybe we can find a loophole," Annabeth answered. Suddenly, she brightened. "What if…" The demigods all leaned closer, with the exception of Jason and Percy, who both fell asleep as soon as Piper stopped charmspeaking. Leo felt a flicker of hope as she finished explaining. Maybe they could be saved, after all.

* * *

THE NEXT DAY: Leo woke up when he couldn't breathe anymore. A paper was on his face. _Who put a freaking paper over my head?_ Sitting up, he blew the paper off and tried to make out the words written in elegant cursive, which was murder to his eyes. _Repair to the area slash training rock? What's a training rock? Oh, wait… Report to the arena slash training room, right now. From Lyssa…_

Leo took his time getting dressed (which was pretty hard, considering his situation with his arms), before slowly ambling out of the engine room and to the training room (but not before he grabbed some microwaveable chicken nuggets from the dining room). _What are the chances of me getting picked again? I've already been in three, and so has Annabeth. Piper and Hazel went twice, but everyone else has only gone once._ The thought stopped Leo in his tracks. _I've been in three. Do they hate me_ that _much?_ Leo forced himself to push open the door to the training room. Everyone was in there already. Nobody had bothered to wake Leo up, apparently. Leo noted that bitterly, before scolding himself. Then he saw Frank, standing alone in the middle of the room. The others were lined up along the walls already. They were waiting. For him.

"What are you playing at?!" Leo yelled. The room was silent. "I've been in THREE of these torture sessions! Is that not enough?!" Then his hands started tingling strangely. Then his forearms and elbow joints. Then his shoulders. And they could move. They could move!

"Say thank you, Leo Valdez!" Lyssa said silkily. Leo tried to hide his excitement by smirking slightly.

"Thank you, Leo 'Supreme Commander' Valdez!" he crossed his arms. It felt so good to be able to do that again. Then he saw Frank's transformation. The Chinese-Canadian brought his hands to his ears, gingerly touching them like he was afraid they might break.

"I can hear again!" he exclaimed in disbelief.

"Gifts come with a price," Lyssa giggled. And with that cryptic warning, the Furores attacked.

The anger—yes, Leo had anger, lots of it—came pouring out of him. He tried to stop—tried to sing—tried _everything_ , even bribing the Furores with Happy Meals—but nothing would work. Maybe it was because deep down, a savage part of him wanted to fight Frank. To attack him. To inflict pain. To get revenge.

He ran straight at the smoky-eyed son of Mars, despite the fact that Frank was way stronger. At the last possible moment, he rolled and swept his clenched fists at the back of Frank's knees. Frank collapsed involuntarily, falling, but somehow changed into a giant eagle while in midair.

Sharp talons raked across Leo's face, and grabbed him by his injured wrist. Leo cried out and shot white-hot fire at the eagle's feathers, and they caught into flames. With a screech, the eagle dropped the fire-user. Frank changed back to a human, frantically rolling on the floor to extinguish the flames. _Avenge yourself!_ The Furores whispered to Leo. _Take out all your anger, frustration, and fury out on him! He hates you, why shouldn't you hate_ him _?_ Leo would like to say later that he resisted to spirits, and that he pulled back. But that would be lying.

The world became snatches of voices, and brief visual glimpses. Frank's face, bruised and bloody. Leo's newly twisted ankle. Burnt feathers forming a desolate pile on the group. Jagged incisions along his arm, blood pooling out slowly. A shriek of terror—from him or Frank, Leo didn't know. A nasty thump, the sound of metal on metal, the sound of blunt objects waging a battle royal.

And then, for one moment, the world became clear again. But it wasn't just one single moment. It was several, played out by the Furores. A Furor laughing at Frank. Another one, suspiciously squinting at Leo. Yet one more, splitting into two, arguing over something. And then two series of images, moving by so quickly, Leo doubted anyone could understand but him and Frank. The images in front of Frank, Leo couldn't make out. There seemed to be a burned mansion, an old lady, a medal, and some other pictures. But the images in front of Leo, he could definitely recognize. His mother's workshop in flames. His aunt Rosa, who called him a devil. His abusive caretaker, Teresa. A bleak orphanage, where Leo spent several months living. His half-sister back at camp, Nyssa, telling him that fire-users appeared right before something bad. His hand prints burned into the picnic table. Fire.

Leo screamed in rage, and charged at Frank.

 **Reviews/favs get cookies. Sally Jackson's blue cookies :)**

 **Everyone who reviewed/faved: *gives blue cookies***

 **Next update, sometime over the weekend or Monday.**


	14. The Boy Who Used to Have Green Eyes

**This is what most of you have been waiting for: Percy versus Nico. Enjoy... or not...**

 **To all the reviewers from the last chapters: Have some more cookies (::)**

Percy

Percy didn't understand what the flashing images meant to Frank and Leo. Based on their reactions watching the twisted slideshow, he probably didn't want to know. Leo's pictures had a lot of depressing images of people and places that didn't click with Percy's mental image of Leo. Frank's mostly had pictures of random things that seemed to have no connection. But they obviously meant _something_ , because the two of them had beat each other bloody over them.

After a quiet night in sick bay and plenty of ambrosia, they were pretty much okay. Their newly restored arms and hearing, for Leo and Frank, respectively, worked normally as well. The eight demigods were now gathered in the dining room eating lunch, where Leo had moved the anti-listening device to, in order to not attract unwanted attention by always going to Annabeth's room.

"There's only two duels left. Is the plan still going to work?" Nico bluntly asked. Percy didn't like the plan. It meant that everyone would have to risk their lives, not just him and Jason. To be honest, he didn't want Jason to risk it either. Call it a hero complex, but to Percy it was just a matter of protecting his friends.

"Can't we just keep the deals we made with Lyssa?" Percy asked, already knowing the answer. Annabeth glared at him, her beautiful grey eyes narrowing.

"You _know_ why we can't. Besides, if we don't capture Lyssa, you _know_ what's going to happen? She's just going to take some other victim's form instead. She _prefers_ to use yours or Jason's. That doesn't mean she won't _just_ use yours," she looked around the table, almost daring anyone to contradict her. Nobody did, not even Percy. "Okay, we've got that over with. Now, Leo, did you finish making the golden netting?" All heads turned to the son of Hephaestus (except Nico).

The said mechanic nodded. "I think it might be too small, though. Anyone want to help me melt down some more Imperial gold later for the rest of the netting?" Hazel raised her hand. Frank looked from her to Leo, and raised his hand too. Leo didn't seem to notice Frank's suspicious glance, and nodded happily. Percy noticed, though, and frowned. He didn't want to believe it at first, but now… _Lyssa's actually right—there are tensions between us, even after a freaking war with Gaea!_ Almost involuntarily, Percy glanced at Nico. The son of Hades was talking quietly to Jason. Nico still didn't have his sight back.

"I'm going to be in one of the next duels," Nico spoke up suddenly. Percy resisted the urge to jump in his seat.

"What? How do you know?" Hazel asked with concern. Jason looked worried as well.

"Frank and Leo got their normal abilities back after their duel. Piper got her speech back, but Lyssa didn't remove it again. So, that means that after a fight, she plans to give it back. That means Piper won't be in any more duels—" Jason hugged Piper tightly. "—but I definitely will." Percy hated to think about it, but Nico's reasoning made sense. But then, that meant…

Jason reached the same unfortunate conclusion as Percy. "Lyssa also said that everyone would got at least twice. Everyone has, except me, Percy and Nico." There was a brief silence. Then the three girls—Piper, Hazel, and Annabeth—all reacted. Hazel kissed Nico's cheek reassuringly. Piper wove her fingers through Jason's blond hair tenderly. And Annabeth and Percy? Well, they might've had a full-on makeout session. Okay, fine. They totally did. And, Percy had to admit, it was pretty awesome.

Percy was vaguely aware of Frank awkwardly joining Hazel and Nico, and Leo telling a joke to Jason to lighten the mood. But soon, all his attention was on Annabeth. Sharp, witty, blond-haired, grey-eyed Annabeth, the girl he'd literally gone through hell for. Their lips crashed. He held her tightly, pulling her close.

"We saved the world. Twice. We beat Gaea's stinkin' butt. We can handle a _minor_ goddess, right?" he whispered into her ear. He felt, rather than saw, her wry smile.

"Don't get cocky, Seaweed Brain," she breathed, pulling away slightly so she would look him in the eye. Grey eyes met green. "I forgive you," she murmured softly. Percy held her even more tightly. He didn't have to ask what she forgave him for—it was for everything.

"Thanks, Wise Girl."

* * *

An hour later, everything went downhill. Everyone was just relaxing, trying to ignore the fact that their lives were in constant danger. Percy had even persuaded Annabeth to watch Finding Nemo with him. Of course, just as she'd admitted that it _was_ a good movie, the demigods were all transported to the training room with no ceremony. Percy actually saw Leo land on his butt.

"Duel Number Nine. Nico di Angelo, the spawn of Hades—" Nico bristled, and Percy could swear that he saw the shadows around the demigods lengthening. "—will face… hmm… how about _Percy Jackson_?" A spotlight shone on Percy from out of nowhere, and another one highlighted Nico. They both squinted, blinded by the bright light. _Wait. Nico can see?_

"I can see!" Nico gasped, suddenly looking much younger. Like he would look if Percy hadn't failed to save Bianca. Percy clenched his teeth. Guilt wouldn't help him now.

"Did you think I was going to let you fight blind?" Lyssa snorted. "That wouldn't be even _mildly_ entertaining! Now, let the duel of di Angelo versus Jackson commence! Nico, dearie, I believe you have some things to say?" The harsh reality of their situation hit Percy like a ton of bricks. He spun around frantically. The others were bound against the walls by invisible cords again. Annabeth's eyes met Percy's. She mouthed something, fierce determination in her eyes, in the set of her chin, and in the defiant expression Percy loved about her. _I forgive you, Seaweed Brain._ Percy had not time to dwell on that. The Furores wrapped around him, close enough that he could feel their suffocating presence, but not actually physically touching him.

"Percy." The voice was quiet, menacing. "Perseus Jackson." It was smoky-eyed Nico, walking slowly like he didn't have a care in the world. His steps were measured—the word was _precise_. "Slayer of the Titan Kronos. Savior of Olympus." Percy couldn't move. Nico's steady gaze was freezing him, penetrating, unforgiving. "One of the Seven. Praetor of Camp Jupiter. Hero of Camp Half-Blood." Nico was almost directly in front of Percy now. But Percy was still frozen. The way Nico said those titles… "Recipient of two Great Prophecies. Survivor of the demigod world. Son of one of the Big Three." Nico's voice lowered to a deadly whisper. An unnatural chill washed over Percy. "Wielder of Riptide. Boyfriend of Annabeth _**CHASE**_!" Sudden fury made Nico roar the last word. Percy suddenly unfroze. For some reason, the Furores weren't affecting him yet. And he intended to take full advantage of that.

"Nico. Nico, look at me." The demigod looked Percy straight in the eye unflinchingly. Whereas his expression had been calm, mask-like, and _blank_ before, now his entire demeanor changed. His face was full of hate. "Nico, this isn't you. Snap out of it. Please. Stop." Percy's voice broke.

But it was the wrong thing to say. "STOP?! What do you think I've been trying to do?! Exactly that! _STOP!_ You were an unattainable hero! You broke _Calypso_ 's heart, for Hades' sake! You were taken! But could I _stop_? NO! Do you know how many times I wished I could _stop_? Not just with you, but… the whole… thing!" Nico ended in a strangled sort of sob. The spirits around him darkened to a dark grey, almost black. They swirled with more intensity than before. "It hurt, Jackson. It hurt," he whispered. "It still does."

Percy was shocked. Speechless. He tried to say something. "Uh—Nico—"

"Please, don't bother," Nico straightened up, his fingers creeping towards his sword hilt. His already dark eyes were full of black smoke, wisps of darkness twisting through tendrils of hair, and black steam rising off of him. "Say goodbye, Perseus." The chill came over Percy again. Just as he thought things couldn't get any worse, they did.

The Furores converged upon Percy. He uncapped Riptide, slashed, dodged, stabbed, and tried to fight them off, but to no avail. They were just too strong. _It'll be all right, hero,_ they whispered. _Just trust us. Let go. We'll do all the hard work for you. Don't worry. Let us help. We're happy to help! Trust us by letting go._ Percy felt his eyelids growing heavy. The Furores were helping him. They were good. He trusted them. So he closed his eyes.

When they opened again, they were a smoky grey. He knew exactly what to do, and he intended to do it. "You want a fight, death boy? You'll get one!" Riptide got pulled out, and was slashed at Nico's face. No. It didn't _get_ pulled out. Percy pulled it out.

"I've been waiting for this chance," his adversary replied coldly. The two blades—one Stygian iron, one Celestial bronze—met. One good hit on Nico's part would shatter Percy's soul, if he even had one at the moment. But Percy was bigger. He was stronger. He could win. He _would_ win.

He dodged a strike at his head, and returned the favor with a cut at Nico's arm. Blood leaked out. _Good. Blood is liquid!_ Percy thought maniacally. He focused on lifting the blood up, then splashed it onto Nico's feet. Nico slipped and fell, only barely managing to stay upright. He met Percy's eyes. _Brown,_ Percy noted, before Nico dropped his sword with a clatter. "Oh my gods!" Nico gasped. The Furores around him hissed. Then his eyes were smoky once more. Seizing the chance, Percy kicked the son of Hades' sword behind him. Nico cried out in anger and with a loud crack, skeletons rose. They melted through the walls. They advanced from the ceiling. They surrounded Percy. Two pinned him down, and Percy concentrated. A tug at his gut told him that indeed, he'd managed to break the plumbing pipes again. A jet of water shot out at the line of deathly warriors, pinioning them down from sheer force. Percy rose to his feet and glared at Nico.

Growling, the boy who used to have green eyes advanced, and with a swift kick and jab, forced Nico to his knees. Percy pressed Riptide against Nico's neck. "I'll kill you," he said softly, but his eyes were hard. He would do it.

A punch, more bones, a clatter, a wave of darkness, a headlock, blood rising into the air, a crunch, skeletal hands grabbing ankles, a kick, more water. At the end, only one person was left standing in a pool of blood.

 ***hides* I'm sorry...**


	15. The Calm Before the Storm

**I'm sorry for the late update. I forgot to post when I would post this chapter last time, but I did put it on my profile, in case anyone actually checked. As for why this is much later than usual, I wasn't very satisfied with the way I wrote this at first, so I revised it heavily. And this is the end product.**

 **Reviews: THANK YOU ALL!**

Jason

Jason's stomach threatened to let his dinner from the night before escape. There was so much blood… too much. It practically blanketed the entire room. Jason glanced down, and bile rose up into his throat. His sneakers were stained bright red. It didn't help that some of his training from Camp Jupiter suddenly resurfaced in his mind; anyone who lost that much blood couldn't possibly be in any sort of good condition.

Jason tried to pull his eyes away from the grisly scene, but something (morbid curiosity?) kept him from doing so. The upright figure staggered around, clutching a wound on his side. The figure on the ground lay unmoving. Jason couldn't tell who was who. There was complete silence, only broken by the ragged wheezes of pain coming from the standing figure. There were no sounds from the still figure.

Jason managed to tear his eyes away. Annabeth was sobbing silently, and Hazel was shaking so badly that Jason wanted to give her the entire stash of ambrosia they had onboard. Frank was pale, clenching his teeth. Piper was taking deep breaths, over and over and over again. Jason wanted to comfort her, but he couldn't. Leo didn't seem to notice the blood, or more likely, was just trying to ignore it (Jason didn't see how anyone could _not_ notice the blood). He was anxiously eyeing the unmoving body lying on the ground.

"Well done!" a sudden voice called. Lyssa. A loud snap, and the smoke started leaking out of the room through some invisible means. Another snap, and Jason, along with everyone else, fell to the floor. Jason instantly rushed to the prone figure, unmindful of the slippery blood. He didn't know what would be worse—finding that it was Nico lying there, or Percy? Nico or Percy? Nico or Percy?

But just as he reached the body—no, the _living being_ —he froze. _Damn you Lyssa!_

"Now, before you start accusing me of murder and whatnot, he's simply unconscious. I had to knock him out so that the other would not be killed. I need you all alive— _for now._ " Jason gritted his teeth in frustration. Lyssa sounded so _nonchalant_ about it, and she was being purposefully vague about the "he" she referred to. But it was good news that neither was dead. _There was so much blood, though…_

"But what about the blood?!" Jason burst out. He wanted answers. And when the son of Jupiter wants answers, he gets answers.

"Dramatic effect," Lyssa replied promptly, and the demigods were unfrozen. Jason kneeled next to the figure. It was Nico. His face was sunken in, and there was a streak of blood in his hair. There was blood _all over_ him. Jason fought back his nausea, and examined Nico's body— _Nico—_ for wounds. But there were none. Then why wasn't he awake, if Lyssa had simply "knocked him out"?

"T-there's no wounds on Percy. Except for his side," someone said, next to Percy.

"There's none on Nico at all," Jason replied, his brow furrowing. "This makes no sense…" Then he got it. _Who comes to mind when thinking of something that makes absolutely no sense at all?_

"Lyssa!" Annabeth and Piper exclaimed at the same time.

"What did you do to them?!" Hazel yelled, crouching next to Nico.

Leo and Piper both cursed (Honestly, Jason had cursed more on this "quest" than during the entire Giant War!), while Frank glanced around suspiciously.

"Would you _please_ stop accusing me?" Lyssa's unmistakable tone sounded annoyed. "I can't have them dying right now from their slight injuries, I told you! I need to use the sea spawn for my—ah, for _reasons_ —and that other one can't die before _I_ kill him. Anyway, di Angelo was about to stab Jackson with his Stygian iron blade, and that would've erased Jackson's soul," she explained cheerfully.

Annabeth looked pale from the thought. "It's not _slight_ when the injuries are life threatening!" she growled. Jason imagined Lyssa rolling her eyes, but Jason was confused over Lyssa's cover-up until he remembered that Lyssa didn't know that he and Percy told the others about their oaths.

"Gee, thanks. I feel so loved," someone added sarcastically. It was Percy! Jason tackled him in a huge hug before stepping back, letting Annabeth do… uh… things.

"A little help here?" a weak voice called. Nico. Hazel helped him up to a standing position, and Leo supported him from the other side.

"Whoa, dude, you're even lighter than me!" Leo joked. The tension in the air dissipated, and everyone laughed, though Jason still felt uneasy. The demigods filed out of the room, leaving the bloody mess behind.

* * *

The rest of the day passed by with no more surprise announcements by Lyssa. Jason learned how to play Go Fish, at Percy-who-apparently-was-completely-bored-just-sitting-in-his-sick-bay-bed's insistence, and Mythomagic (at Hazel's insistence, while Nico crossed his similarly-bed-ridden arms grumpily but secretly looked pleased). Mythomagic was surprisingly fun, and Nico was like an entirely different person when explaining that _no,_ Jason's Minotaur couldn't actually beat Nico's Hydra, since Nico had a limited-edition holiday Dionysus card in reserve. Of course, the first thought to come to Jason's mind was, _Mr. D has a holiday limited edition card?!_

Jason also helped Leo, Hazel, and Frank (well, mostly Leo) with the golden netting that would hopefully capture Lyssa at the next, and final, fight. IT was surprisingly satisfying work, and Jason made a mental resolution to help out the Hephaestus cabin at Camp Half-Blood/ Vulcan kids at Camp Jupiter more often. It was calm and peaceful, at least until newly-released Nico asked to talk to Jason, who was talking with Piper at the time. In private, in the dining room, where the anti-listening device was. _What's so private that he needs to take these measures?_

"What's up, Nico?" he asked the younger demigod. The son of Hades bit his lip.

"It's going to be you and Percy," he blurted out, then winced. Jason blinked. The most intelligent thing he could come up with to say was,

"Huh?" _Great job, Grace! Totally smooth!_

"The duel tomorrow. It'll be you and Percy. I sensed some of the Furores' excitement. With Lyssa taking your forms, our plan, and the actual fight, it's going to be chaos. Annabeth gave us all our individual roles, except you and Percy. You just need to fight the Furores off, piss off Lyssa so she'll take your forms early, try not to kill anyone, and… actually, that's it," _(Definitely not much at all for puny demigods…)_ Nico explained. "You need to be able to keep a clear head. I've told Percy already."

"I know that already, so—" Nico cut off the older demigod.

"I'm going to get some Underworld spirits to try to possess you." Jason gaped at Nico. _What?_

"You need practice," he said simply. Jason thought it was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard. It was also incredibly smart. So he agreed. The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to resist the spirits telling him to knock himself out with a brick. (Ha-ha, Nico. Very funny.)

* * *

"Does everyone know their roles for tomorrow's fight?" Annabeth asked as the group began settling at the table for dinner a couple of hours later. Jason immediately noted the positions at which everyone sat at. Old praetor habits were hard to break. Going clockwise form the head of the table, it was Annabeth, Percy, Frank, Hazel, Leo (who joked that he was proud to be sitting at the other head of the table), Piper, Jason himself, and then Nico, who looked awkwardly across the table at Percy.

"So basically, I use charmspeak and stuff while you guys fight," Piper summarized. Jason squeezed her hand under the table. He hoped that that was enough to reassure her.

"No, I'm in charge of contacting camp, remember?" Frank protested. Judging based on everyone's blank stares (well, everyone's blank stares but Annabeth), no one did remember. Annabeth sighed, and taking a deep breath, explained everything in one breath, with Percy and Leo muttering nicknames as she went.

"Seaweed Brain (Percy: "Me!") and Jason ("Sparky!") are going to be hosting Lyssa ("Evilness personified…" "Wow, Percy, that's a long word!"). Piper ("Beauty Queen!") will be fighting the Furores with her charmspeak, maybe even Lyssa. Hazel ("Miss Metal Detector!") is going to use the Mist to our advantage. Frank ("Beast Boy!") will try to get rid of the force field around the ship, and talk to camp or the gods. Leo ("Me!" "Repair Boy!") is in charge of using the netting to capture Lyssa. Nico ("Death Boy!" "No, Death Breath!") will help with capturing Lyssa by using his powers. And I'll be helping out everyone and coordinating the whole thing. ("Wise Girl!")" Leo whistled softly after she was done.

"You forgot something important, though," he pointed out.

"What could possibly be more important that the pl-?" Annabeth started.

"Try not to die." That effectively shut everyone up.

* * *

Jason slept without any nightmares for the first time in… well, a long time. Even while he was safely at camp, he'd had bad dreams—Percy and Annabeth falling into Tartarus, fighting the giants, Nico's confession, fighting Ma Gasket. The list went on. But he had no dreams at all that night.

It was, Jason thought, the calm before the storm. In fact, it was, quite literally.

 **The story is nearing the climax... and the climax shall be updated sometime during the weekend.**


	16. The Sea and the Sky

**This battle will probably go on for a few more chapters: I really don't feel like making it all one giant chapter that's five times longer than all the other chapters.**

Nico

Nico had heard a quote before that said that the end of the world came with a whimper, not a bang. He figured that it was a mortal who'd said that, because it was totally wrong. Lyssa definitely had a flair for the dramatic (fake blood, anyone?); she started off the day with a very, _very_ , loud bang.

Nico usually had nightmares, but he didn't have _any_ dreams at all that night. It would have reassured any other demigod, but it just made Nico paranoid and unable to sleep. (Well, that part was nothing new.) Half the night was spent tossing and turning, and thinking about the demigods at camp. Were they sending out search parties? Did the gods contact them? Did Calypso miss Leo? ( _Since when do you care, Nico?_ ) Did _Will Solace_ miss Nico? Okay, that was a surprising thought, coming from the Ghost King. But that wasn't the point at all.

Nico estimated that he'd finally fallen asleep at around four in the morning. So when the unnaturally loud bang sounded at _five_ , when Apollo _himself_ hadn't even risen yet, he was justified in running out of his cabin with his sword already unsheathed, messy bed-head, cursing like Arion, and trailing tangled bedsheets around his legs. Lyssa, however, was _not_ justified in transporting him, pitch-black pajamas and all, to the training room. Did Nico mention that it was at _five_ , and that he was _not_ a morning person?

The others didn't look much better. They all wore pajamas (or their version of it…), and there were noticeable bags under Leo, Hazel, Annabeth, and Frank's eyes. Percy kept waking up with a start and then drifting back off to sleep, and Piper's eyes kept fluttering closed. Jason, meanwhile, looked slightly more rested, but he was tense, edgy, and apprehensive, glancing around every few seconds. Nico gripped his sword more tightly and kicked his bedsheets aside, where they disappeared with a popping sound. The blood from the day before was mostly gone, but bright red traces still remained, and discolored patches of the once-clean white walls were a constant reminder of the fights. Soon, it would be all over, whether for good, or for bad.

As tired as everyone was, when Lyssa spoke, everyone became alert and battle-ready. Nico couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness that they were already so combat-hardened. Jason and Percy both grew very still. Thanks to Nico, they knew that they would be fighting in the final duel.

"Welcome to the arena, for the last time!" Lyssa greeted. No one made a sound, except for clenching their teeth (Jason, Annabeth, and Leo), fingering their weapons (Piper, Hazel, and Nico), or growling (Frank and Percy). "Our fighters this time will be Jason Grace and Percy Jackson!" the resigned, acquiescent expressions on their faces infuriated Nico to no end.

"You're going to fight," he growled at them. "And we're going to murder Lyssa." The fierceness in his tone surprised even Nico himself. And where had the pep talk come from? _Lyssa will pay for what she's done,_ Nico silently vowed to himself. He began imagining ways he could punish the goddess. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts, he forgot that Lyssa was there too, listening.

"Aw, how sweet!" Nico gritted his teeth. "No matter; I suppose I can tell you my grand plan now. Might as well get a little bragging done, no? You see, I want to unite my Greek _and_ Roman aspects…" It was all information they already knew, but put in the harsh words of Lyssa's smooth-as-honey voice, it sounded infinitely worse. Not only that, but she was so blasé about the entire situation. Nico did not enjoy others deciding on the method of his death in such a casual tone (not that he liked others discussing it at all), like they were wondering what they would eat for dinner. To top it all off, her thinly-veiled threats were just the right amount of indifference to be disconcerting, and just the right amount of glee to be slightly frightening, even to Nico.

"But what about your oath on the Styx? You said you wouldn't hurt my friends if we handed over our forms!" Percy cried out. Out of the corner of his eye, Nico saw Annabeth tremble slightly. Mentally, Nico cursed Percy's hero complex, not for the first time.

"No, _hero,_ " Only Lyssa could make that sound like the worst insult ever invented. "I said they would be _safe_. And unfortunately for you, I have a _very_ different definition of 'safe' than you." Goosebumps rose along Nico's arms. Before, he had, perhaps foolishly, assumed that the other demigods would have at least _some_ sort of protection due to the oath. But now? No. How much more brazen could the demented goddess get? Kidnapping some of the most powerful demigods in history? Using them to gain a throne of Olympus? Seeking a loophole through a promise made on the _River Styx_? "Enough dawdling! I intend for this last duel to be very entertaining indeed. And… well, I can only take _one_ of your forms. This time, I _won't_ step in when one of you kills the other. I want the stronger form. The winner shall be my host! The other shall, to put it in a polite phrase, be in the realm of Hades."

Nico had a strong stomach, but now, he was suddenly glad he didn't have breakfast, because at this point, it would be gone anyway.

* * *

The Furores wasted no time in charging Percy and Jason. Lyssa wasted no time in slamming everyone else against the wall. And the demigods wasted no time in starting their plan immediately. Nico caught Annabeth's eye. _Wait,_ he mouthed to her. She raised an eyebrow in confusion, but she trusted him enough to nod.

Nico watched intently as the fight played out. There was already a pool of water surrounding Percy, and static electricity flickered around Jason. Both had their swords pulled out as well. Nico ignored his instinct to just break free of the bonds Lyssa put on him; he had to wait until Jason and Percy were making a big enough distraction. Suddenly, the Argo gave an unpleasant lurch. Waves crashed.

"Oh, so that's how you want to play it?" sneered Jason. His smoky eyes were gleaming coldly as he hefted up his sword.

"Bring it on," retorted the son of Poseidon, assuming a battle stance. And so Jason did, slashing and weaving lightly through his opponent's defenses. Percy blocked a blow to his head, and stabbed Jason's leg. Blood slowly pooled out. "Worthless Roman!" he growled as a whirlpool formed around him.

"Greek scum!" Jason shot back, floating in the air. Bolts of lightning crackled at the tip of his sword, illuminating his face eerily, and lighting up his already-golden colored hair. The sky darkened even more than it already was.

The sky and sea were fighting each other. Thunder boomed, and the ship lurched to one side. The sea roared in response, and the ship rocked to the other side. Hazel looked green. Smoke filled the room, making it slightly hard to see. Cold air currents whooshed around Jason; Percy sent a wave at Jason's sword, washing it away. Eyes glowing with fury, the son of Jupiter used the air to summon the weapon back into his hand, and the battle resumed.

It was the perfect time. _Now!_ Nico mouthed to Annabeth. She gave him a tight, tense nod. Hazel glanced at both of them and understood immediately. She closed her eyes and concentrated. Nico waited.

Searing pain hit him, and suddenly his vision was split into two. On one side, he was still frozen, still bonded to the wall. But on the other, he was walking around with his blade out and ready. Nico shook his head, _hard_ , and his vision refocused. He was free! But as he glanced over to the wall, he saw himself and the five other demigods still restrained. A terrifying grin escaped Nico, one that had sent many monsters running. _Hazel's Mist manipulation will buy us some time to regroup._

Silently, Nico crept to the darkest corner of the room. Leo, in his Bob the Builder pajamas and wearing his tool belt (Nico stifled a smirk), shuffled over too. Piper and Hazel were on the opposite side of the room, whispering in hushed tones. Annabeth was fishing out a drachma from her pocket for Frank to send an Iris-message. Everyone was in position.

" _Where's the netting?_ " Nico hissed at Leo more sharply than he intended. He would've preferred to work with someone else, and that came across in his tone. Inwardly, Nico winced, though his mask of calm gave nothing away. For a brief moment, there was an expression of genuine hurt on the son of Hephaestus' face. But that was quickly replaced by minor annoyance.

"In my tool belt!" Leo rolled his eyes. Nico nodded curtly, and watched as the Latino boy dug out a handful of what looked like a ball of golden string. But it was so much more—it was the same exact material and design as the net that Hephaestus had used to trap Ares and Aphrodite in eons ago. If it could hold two _Olympians,_ one of them the god of _war,_ it would hold a deranged goddess of fury. "Can you give me a team of, like, skeletons or something? It takes multiple people to unwind this," Leo asked quietly. Nico nodded again, his shoulders tense. Any moment now…

"ATTACK!" Annabeth screamed. Instantly, Hazel's Mist creations melted away, and the freed demigods were visible. There was a primal scream of outrage from Lyssa.

" _How dare you?!_ " the demigods sprang into action, ignoring her.

Nico raised his arms and a wave of shadows and darkness escaped, trapping some of the Furores in their deadly embrace. Already he felt lightheaded, but he had to keep going. A dozen skeletal warriors wriggled out from a crack in the wall. He felt dizzy, and only just managed to steady himself. The sound of bones rattling echoed around the room, and black spirits emerged, wailing in agony. "ENGAGE WITH THE FURORES!" he commanded them, standing up straighter.

Vaguely, he saw Frank turning into a gigantic gorilla and charging at something, Piper screaming charmspeak commands, Hazel summoning heavy gems, Annabeth fighting an invisible Furor with only a bronze dagger, and Leo barking orders at a group of obedient skeletons to unravel the netting. But he was more focused on the giant shadow that materialized itself in front of him.

The last time he'd seen her, Lyssa was just slightly over eight feet tall. But now, Lyssa could easily be mistaken for a giant—one of the larger ones.

" _What do you think you're doing, you devil spawn?_ " she shrieked, her sugar-sweet voice gone. Now, she was every bit as terrifying as Tartarus himself, only crazier. That thought made Nico smile, and he regained his confidence.

"Nothing much, just hanging out with my undead friends," he replied to her rhetorical question, trying to channel Percy's sass, Annabeth's sarcasm, Leo's cheekiness, and his own cold confidence. His attempt at pissing her off seemed to work, because her eyes glowed dangerously. "I mean, how lame _are_ you? A giant shadow. Really, that's it? Come on, that's just pathetic!" he scoffed, folding his arms and trying to look bored and disinterested, though it was hard, resisting the urge to just jump up and stab Lyssa. He knew that would just get him killed, however.

Lyssa's eyes glowed brighter. And then, she _changed_. And Furor was completely terrifying.

 **The next chapter's POV I haven't decided on, but it will be through at least two different POVs. Any suggestions for the POV you want to see most? (No, it can't be Nico again.)**

 **Next update: Sometime within the week, around Tuesday-Friday, I guess. Sorry if that's too vague for you, but I honestly don't know.**


	17. The Unnamed Son of Demeter

**The wifi cut out just as I was going to post this -.-** **It finally got back on approximately... er... five minutes ago?**

 **Piper, Annabeth, and Hazel were the most popular choices for the POVs, so I decided to do Piper and Annabeth for this chapter.**

 **Next chapter will have Hazel in it, but I need a male character for it as well.**

 **Luna (Guest): Thanks for all your reviews, and yes, it is Thursday. :)**

 **Enjoy this longest chapter.**

Piper

Piper's voice was already growing hoarse from all the yelling she was doing, and it was, what? Ten minutes into the battle? "Stay back! That spirit over there told me that it's more furious than you! Oh, and those ugly gray Furores on that side? They ratted you out to Lyssa when you accepted a bribe a couple hundred years ago! Fall asleep! Drop dead!" At this point, Piper honestly didn't even know what she was saying anymore. There were Furores all around her, whispering but with no sound. "Be quiet! Run away!" she wondered if spirits _could_ run.

 _Join us, your magic-talk will be quite useful…_ a cold breath blew gently past the side of Piper's face. "Charmspeak, not magic-talk. Get it right!" Piper snapped, unaware that even _that_ remark was laced with charmspeak. _Of course. Charmspeak, how could we forget?_ She groaned in annoyance, and unsheathed her blade. Her voice was getting tired after talking nonstop; if she talked any longer, Piper was afraid that her voice might give out, and _then_ what use would she be? The spirits seemed to have a strong reaction to the knife. _No, no!_ Piper swung Katoptris in a long arc. She was no swordsman (or woman), but she was pretty handy with her knife.

 _Not the looking glass! Not that dagger! The looking glass? The looking glass! The blade of Helen! No! The glass of Troy!_ The Furores spun frantically. Piper didn't understand why they were so wary of her weapon, or why they weren't even trying harder to possess her, for that matter, but she would take what she could get. It wasn't as if she could afford to be picky.

And then, it happened. A chill swept from across the room— _Lyssa._ The Furores stopped, the fighting stopped. Only Percy and _Jason_ —Piper swallowed—were still fighting each other, but their battle seemed distant now. In fact, Piper could barely hear their duel at all, except for a few muffled echoes of metal on metal, crashing waves, and the sound of sizzling. Piper couldn't move. Or maybe she _could_ , but just _wouldn't_ move. Or maybe Lyssa was playing tricks in her mind. Or— _Stop it, Piper! Don't stress out, you're_ only _in the middle of fighting for your life! And Percy and Jason's, too!_ She shuddered for Jason and Percy. They were in Lyssa's—no, _Furor's_ clutches much more than she was.

With that unpleasant thought in mind, Piper looked to where Furor must be. She saw a motionless, standing figure behind Furor. Nico. _I hope he's okay…_ but then her attention was drawn to Furor herself. Furor was horrible, but she was beautiful. She was horribly beautiful. That was the best description Piper was able to put together. Her face seemed to be made up of mostly varying shades of black smoke, but Piper couldn't see much else from her profile. She had a perfectly formed and shaped body, with entrancing, smoky designs of unimaginable wonders and horrors shifting around slowly. Furor had no shadow; she _was_ the shadow. Even though Piper was the furthest away from the goddess, she felt all the emotions rolling in dark waves from Furor's body. Mindless rage, boundless fury, and anger beyond comprehension. Madness—madness beyond all logical possibility. Madness that entered Piper, slowly but surely—madness seeping into every inch of her. Images that weren't hers filtered into her brain, inexpressible, unreasonable fury reaching a fever pitch. It was as if the very fabric of her perspective of the world shifted. Piper still had shreds of sanity, but they couldn't comprehend what the rest of her was seeing. So they stopped trying to. And then, suddenly, it was all gone.

"You have angered me, Nico di Angelo. What you have just experienced is only a small sampling of what I can do! And look, your _friends_ have suffered as well," Furor appeared to grow even taller, and as she did, Piper sank to her knees. The madness was gone… but the feeling of it remained. It was indescribable pain, complete helplessness, utter suffering. It was… sadness. Grief. Happiness. Rage. Joy. Fury. Laughter. The feeling of running in the rain, watching a rainbow break through storm clouds, fighting for your life, laughing at a funny joke, sitting up bolt upright in bed because of a nightmare. All mixed into one, blending into each other, until she couldn't tell friend from foe, enemy from ally. To be honest, Piper had never that that Dionysus, who ruled over madness, was one of the more powerful major gods. Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Athena, and (as much as Piper hated to admit it) even Aphrodite were powerful, in their own ways. _I'll never underestimate Mr. D ever again,_ Piper thought. _Not Furor either, for that matter._

Just as suddenly as the madness was gone, the remnants of it disappeared too. Piper briefly wondered why, amongst her overwhelming relief, until she came to the sickening conclusion. Piper was definitely _not_ a child of Athena, but it was easy enough to see what Furor/Lyssa was doing. She was toying with the demigods, displaying her power. Piper shakily stood up and glanced to her right at Annabeth, whose steel-gray eyes were boring into the smoky shadow that was Furor with so much burning, intense hatred that Piper would have run away screaming. Piper's own resolve hardened. She lifted her chin and made sure that her knife was secure.

It was a good thing that she did so; just then, the Furores resumed their swirling motions. But something was… off. They seemed less smoky, and their movement was less like that of a ghost, and more like that of a… well, a living, breathing being. A clatter shook Piper out of her stupor. It was Hazel's cavalry sword, falling out of her grip.

"How...?" she trailed off, a frightened look plastered all over her features. "You made the Furores—"

"Yes, indeed!" Before Piper could process what was happening, Nico rushed to Hazel from behind Furor.

"She made them back into their original forms!" he gasped, panting harshly.

"You mean…" Piper stopped.

"They _were_ demigods and monsters," he said grimly. "And now, they're demigods and monsters again."

* * *

Annabeth

Annabeth couldn't believe the sheer audacity of Furor. Finding a loophole through a promise on the freaking _Styx_ was a brazen risk, but fine. Driving demigods mad to showcase her power, all right. (Well, it wasn't all right, even if it had seemed to affect Annabeth less than the other demigods, maybe because she'd been through the literal Greek hell. Leo and Hazel had had tears streaming down their face, Piper had almost collapsed, Frank had been changing forms every second or so, and Nico had had spasms every few moments.) Turning her spirits back into their original forms of life for her own personal army? _No._ Just… no.

Trying to fight shapeless spirits was already hard enough. Fighting monsters that had a solid form and that could use the powers they had in life? That was bordering on insanity. Of course, Annabeth thought wryly, tucking a loose strand of her wavy blond hair now streaked with dirt behind her ear, _Furor_ is _insane, after all._ She gripped her new bronze dagger with grim determination. She was a child of Athena, retriever of the Athena Parthenos, one of the Seven, survivor of two wars, and a demigod that went through Tartarus; she was Annabeth Chase. _This is for you, Seaweed Brain._ Annabeth threw her shoulders back and charged into battle, screaming bloody murder at Furor in Greek, alongside Piper and Hazel, who wore equally determined expressions. Percy and Jason was still dueling, while Leo was rattling off curses as he furiously tried to untangle the netting surreptitiously. Frank scooped dup water and threw it into the air, trying to connect an Iris-message with camp, though he kept peering around the room nervously, anxious for Hazel, Annabeth guessed. Hazel was holding her own, though, battling against a Hyperborean giant with her spathe and occasionally manipulating the Mist to trick the admittedly dim-witted monster. As Annabeth watched, she slashed through the spirit and it disappeared into smoke, which was gradually filling the room. Another group of monster-Furores started swinging at the daughter of Pluto, who simply knocked them out by controlling their metal swords.

But Nico, on the other hand—oh gods, Nico. He was taking on Furor herself. He ducked, weaved, and dodged, somehow managing to not be struck by any of Furor's numerous attacks or be trapped in her smoky web. He occasionally slashed or stabbed a bit of smoke whenever he got the chance, causing it to slowly fade away, but the goddess always generated more to replace it almost instantly. Furor seemed to be enjoying herself; she cackled gleefully as a spirit fought with Leo (who had apparently decided to let Nico's skeletons take the job of untangling the netting) using a ghostly spear. One chuck of a hammer and a blast of intense fire later, the spirit was nothing but a puff of smoke.

"Watch out!" Piper screamed. Annabeth ducked just in time, an arrow whistling just barely an inch above her head. _Damn, Chase, pay attention!_ She scolded herself, yelling out a quick thanks to the charmspeaker, who was holding off a group of empousai- Furores. Annabeth herself was running around, trying to stab unsuspecting spirits, who evaporated into smoke once defeated. But despite all the action, she couldn't help thinking that if Percy was fighting with her, they would have each other's backs, and the whole arrow incident would've just consisted of _him_ yelling out, "Watch it, Wise Girl!"

And then, she was face-to-face with a fellow demigod—a demigod Furor. He was completely solid, unlike some of the half-transparent monster Furores Annabeth had killed. He was tall, and handsome in a scruffy kind of way, with thin stubble dotting his chin and ruffled, shoulder-length brown hair. He was wearing basic battle armor, combat boots, and held painful-looking spiked chains in one gloved hand. He had a large shield in his other hand. The shield looked as if it was once green, but now rust coated the otherwise-magnificent defensive tool.

"What—who are you?" Annabeth asked, struck by the fact that the guy couldn't have been more than a few years older than herself when he… well, died and became a Furor.

"I _was_ a demigod. Son of Demeter," he replied, sounding very much alive. He didn't sound like an enemy. He sounded like… a demigod. An ally. _Don't forget, he's a Furor!_

"Why?!" Annabeth burst out, though she kept a wary eye on the spiked chains in the boy's grip. He seemed to understand what she was asking, his warm—not smoky at all, Annabeth noticed—blue eyes seeming to smile though his mouth was in a questioning frown.

"I died back in the sixties, when Demeter's kids were preaching about nature left and right, though I was never part of that crowd. Anyway, children of the 'less' powerful gods are supposed to attract less monsters, right? Well, that hellhound attacked me anyway. There was actually another demigod with me—child of Ares, I think. Didn't do _anything_ to help. Lyssa recruited me; I didn't want to rot in the fields of Asphodel for eternity!" He spat out a cloud of smoke, which drifted away. "This shield here was one reserved for the kids of Demeter. You'll notice that I let it rust in the afterlife."

Annabeth understood the fallen son of Demeter's thought process. Hell, she'd felt that way too, lots of times. Still, she tried to reason with him. It? No, him. "Please, consider what you're doing here. Things are much better now… And how did you know that you would go to Asphodel?"

"Yeah, that's true. I could've ended up in the Fields of Punishment, yeah? But as for things being better… You're a daughter of Athena. So tell me, are they, really?" he asked lifting an eyebrow, shifting his weight subtly. Annabeth couldn't really answer that. To tell the truth, things really weren't that much better. The fallen demigod sighed deeply. "I thought not," he said, almost sadly, adjusting his armor plating. "Prepare for death, daughter of Athena."

Annabeth tensed, ready to spring to the side when he attacked. That way, his heavy armor, shield, and weapons would work against him. But nothing happened, except that her leg began to itch.

The thought struck her like lightning. He was a son of _Demeter_. That tickling on her leg… she slashed at her leg with her knife, right before a thick vine completely ensnared her around her calves. That triggered her battle reflexes, which were itchy for a fight after so long. She rolled away from the Furor, and struck at the back of his knees, but he blocked it with his shield. She retaliated by stabbing his arm, but he barely winced before swinging his heavy, spiked chains at her, straight at her head. Annabeth forced herself to wait an agonizing, long second. A split second before impact, Annabeth flicked her knife up and caught the chains around the hilt, crying out as one spike created a gash in her palm. She sent the chains flying back at the former demigod's head. He let out an anguished, pain-filled cry before crumpling to the ground, and soon a new wisp of smoke rose into the air, joining the many others in the room. Annabeth stood there, paralyzed, with a new spoil of war, the chains.

She mechanically fought off one monster, and another, but her mind was on one thing, and one thing only. _I didn't even know his name._

 **In the reviews, tell me which male character's POV you want next! (If you already said someone, you don't need to say it again, I've noted them all down.)**

 **Thank you for sticking with me up the this chapter! The next update will be sometime on the weekend, per usual.**


	18. Leo's Top Ten List of Stupid Things

**This one is just slightly shorter than the last chapter.**

 **Leo was overwhelmingly the favorite for a male character, so here he is. (Well, after Hazel, there he is.)**

Hazel

The room was completely filled with white smoke at this point in the battle, and Hazel was finding it harder and harder to quickly defeat the monsters. Her sword arm was getting tired, and her energy was depleted to the point where she could barely summon more than a few scattered emeralds or rubes—forget about manipulating the Mist! Before, the demigods had been advancing upon the spirits, but now they were hard-pressed to even just hold their ground, as more and more of Lyssa's forces attacked unrelentingly.

Hazel advanced a step, unwilling to give up ground (classes at Camp Jupiter had taught her to never retreat in an enclosed space unless completely necessary), but a screaming manticore jumped in front of her with thin vapor trailing out of a stomach wound that must have been one of the others' doing. Hazel stabbed the monster and it disintegrated into smoke. _One more down, about a million more to go…_ Hazel sighed an instinctively deflected a blow from a dagger from behind, spinning to face her attacker. Hazel was expecting a humanoid monster-Furor, since those were the only spirits she'd seen so far that could actually use a weapon with some degree of skill. And that blow would've almost certainly been fatal if administered with enough force. But the attacker wasn't a monster at all; it was a young _girl_ , even younger than Hazel, who was already the youngest of the Seven. Hazel clumsily dropped into a defensive stance, staring at the little girl, who barely reached up to Hazel's shoulder in height.

 _Demigods and monsters… Nico said they were demigods and monsters… oh gods…_ demigods _are Furores too…_ Hazel examined the little demigod from head to toe while still in a battle stance. She—Hazel still had trouble thinking of the innocent-looking little girl as a spirit or a Furor—had shoulder-length, wavy dark hair, and looked to be around eight or nine years old. Whether that was petite for her age, or tall, Hazel couldn't tell. Her eyes were a startling shade of green, and they were opened widely and inoffensively. She almost looked like a miniature Percy. Well, if Percy was a girl… Hazel smiled slightly at the thought and scanned the rest of the girl. She wasn't wearing armor; instead, she was dressed in a loose blue tunic with a belt around her waist. Her dagger ruined the picture. It was wicked-looking, with one edge finely and smoothly crafted with what had to have been painstaking care, but the other edge was jagged and serrated sharply. It might have once been gold or bronze, but now it was completely caked with dirt, dust, and dark reddish-brown splotches that looked suspiciously like blood.

"Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto. Why are you resisting us? My patron wishes only to help you," the girl said sweetly. Her voice… it was so smooth, like the clean edge of her dagger. _Hazel, snap out of it!_

"No! I won't join you," Hazel growled forcefully. _She's a Furor, not a demigod…_ But still, the girl's innocent demeanor haunted Hazel. "Why would _you_ join your so-called 'patron'?"

"I was hunted, persecuted, because they said I was a witch. I'm not, but you are, aren't you, _witch girl_?!" Hazel gulped. How could the girl know about what people called her back then? The girl continued. "They hung me, because I was different. Just because I could make grapes grow. They made me suffer, so now I'll make _you_ suffer."

Before Hazel could process that, the girl moved with astonishing speed, aiming the tip of her dagger at Hazel's heart. A primal scream of rage sounded from somewhere behind Hazel, and everything after that seemed to move in slow motion, frame by frame. A dark blur of gray fur—a wolf! The wolf ran at the girl, growling. The dagger spun in the air, thrown by the Furor, catching the morning light—it was morning already, or maybe mid-morning, judging by the sun's brilliance. The dagger rotated slowly, then dropped, twisting and turning in the smoke-filled air, the tip of it pointing at Hazel. The blur of fur saved her again, jumping up gracefully and smacking the dagger out of its original course, and into a new one. Paralyzed, Hazel watched as the dagger plunged directly into the girl's heart.

And then time started again, and Hazel unfroze, ran to him, and hugged Frank tightly. He was, of course, the wolf that saved her. "Thank you," she whispered into his shoulder. "Thank you, Frank." He was always there for her, always there to help her. He saved her life! And so Hazel tried to put all of that into her words, her simple yet meaningful words. _Thank you_.

He stroked her hair, and for a moment they were alone, away from the fighting. It was just them, and only them. They ignored the smoky air between them, and kissed. "I'm sorry," he said huskily, pulling away, and Hazel could hear the catch in his voice, and the harshness of his breathing.

"You saved my life. There's nothing to be sorry for," Hazel replies softly, trying to convince herself as much as Frank. _She was a_ Furor, she repeated in her mind over and over again, like a mantra. _She—_ it— _was a Furor._ But the girl's words kept echoing in Hazel's mind. _Witch girl… how did she know about my past life? They hung her because she had demigod powers… oh gods, it's so true… mortals do that and more…_

"Holy Mars!" Frank yelled suddenly, his eyes widening comically. Hazel jerked back in surprise, yanked from her thoughts. "I got a rainbow going, and connected an Iris-message with camp! I left them hanging!"

Now that Hazel thought about it, there was only one window in the room, and it was small, to boot. There was no way all of the sunlight reflected on the girl's dagger could've been from that. She grabbed Frank's hand and sprinted to the light-filled corner of the room. Sure enough, there were anxious faces peering out of a spray of water that was coming out of an exposed, burst pipe.

Questions started flying at them, and Hazel took a deep breath. Then she started with the tale from the very beginning, while Frank guarded her from the Furores.

"We're somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and—" a thunderous roar cut her off.

"An Iris-message?! Wait—no, no!" Furor knocked Frank aside like a rag doll, glaring at Hazel. Then, suddenly, her form shifted, and she changed into her Greek form. "Wha—" Someone ran towards them, and suddenly tackled Lyssa.

* * *

Leo

Leo had done _many_ stupid things in his life (lives?), but this definitely made the Top Ten list. (Honestly, it was kind of sad that he even _had_ a list.) Killing a power-hungry primordial goddess by exploding into a fiery ball miles above the earth? Psh, that was too mainstream for him. Leo just _had_ to run to the screaming, I'm-in-a-really-bad-mood-so-it-would-not-please-me-if-you-tackle-me goddess and tackle her. At this rate, Leo was going to end up dying. Again.

Lyssa swayed to one side, obviously unused to being on the receiving end of a NFL-worthy tackle. But then—she _fell_. On top of one scrawny Super-sized McShizzle, who, by the way, _did not_ appreciate being a personal mattress to a maniacal goddess. Or any goddess, for that matter. Except Calypso… Calypso was hot… like him. _I have fire powers… so I'm hot. Heh, that's funny, I need to use that later… why is everything black? Why does my head hurt? Ow…_

"Not funny, Valdez!" someone called. Oh. He must have said that out loud. "Yeah, you did," the same person said. That was weird too. And why was there the sound of metal in the background? Was he at the camp's forges? No, there was no fire around, no heat except from somewhere across the room, where something that sounded suspiciously like a monster was growling. _Hey, what's that noise?_ It almost sounded like Piper was trying to wake him up. Was he asleep? "Shut _up_ , Repair Boy!" _Yep, Piper._ Suddenly, Leo's eyes flew open and he woke up. He was being dragged across something. The floor.

"What the Hades?" Leo muttered, catching whoever was dragging him by surprise. And then, of course, they dropped him. "Hey, ow! Watch the head!" he rubbed his head and felt not one, but _two_ giant lumps (that was gonna hurt) and sat up. Leo nodded to Piper's apology. He grabbed her outstretched hand (it took a lot of effort to resist pulling her down with him) and stood up, scanning the room for what he missed while unconscious.

Lyssa was lying on the ground, unmoving, a dark shadow shoved to one side of the room like a broken toy. _Did I knock her out?_ Leo wondered. Most of the Furores were gone as well, but a few remained. The smokiness of the air was a lot less too, which Leo was grateful for. Fighting monsters was hard enough, but fighting them while you could barely see a foot in front of your face was like… fighting Clarisse at Camp Half-Blood. Dangerous, and likely to get you killed. Annabeth, Frank, Hazel, and Nico were fighting them, and without their advantage of numbers, the spirits were losing badly. Jason and Percy were _still_ fighting each other with a variety of (weird) tactics. As he watched, Leo saw Jason burn a hole in Percy's shirt with lightning. Percy responded by soaking Jason in the plumbing water (Leo was getting tired of fixing that thing!) and yelling something about Jason's mother. _Shit, that's low…_ Jason flung back with an insult to something that Leo couldn't hear, but made Percy punch Jason in the face. Leo mentally groaned and could only watch as the two demigods continued sparring—considering how they were fighting, it was a miracle neither was dead. Yet. _Nico's pessimism is catching,_ Leo reflected.

"What the hell did I do, Pipes?" Leo asked. "Did I actually knock out Lyssa?" he imagined what a great story that would be later, if they survived. _And then Valdez tackled the evil goddess and single-handedly saved all of them!_ Yeah, right, that would totally happen. Piper yanked him back to reality.

"You knocked Lyssa unconscious, and yourself in the process," Piper looked like she was trying not to laugh. Leo gave her an A for effort, but an F for acting. "Her concentration on the Furores waned, so most of them dissolved right away. The others are fighting the rest of them, but before she fell, Lyssa managed to trap Percy and J-Jason in an invisible room thing so we can't stop them. Nico already tried, but I think Lyssa's the only one who can get them out of there… that, or she'll only let one of them out if the other's dead…" Piper's voice lost its humor. Leo squeezed her hand lightly, and she gave him a faint smile. Then he asked about the Iris-message, because, after all, that was why he'd tackled Lyssa in the first place—to keep the all-important message going. "Hazel told them who took us and where we are, but the connection cut after that," Leo nodded thoughtfully and reached into his tool belt, and pulled out the golden netting.

It was perfect timing—the remaining Furores got killed, and the demigods fighting them immediately headed for Leo and Piper, like moths to a flame. _A flame! Hey, I'm a flame, so does that mean they're moths? I would pay money to see Percy's face if I called him a moth… crap. I hate ADHD sometimes. Percy…_ Leo instantly sobered.

The demigods all gathered around, looking the worse for wear. Frank had nasty scratches and cuts all over, Annabeth was sporting a large, hastily applied bandage on her head, Hazel had serious-looking burns on her arms, and Nico looked like he'd been though a meat processor. Leo wasn't even exaggerating on that. Nico was paler than usual, his arms were bloodstained, his sword arm hung limply at his side, and judging from the wince on his face, a bone was probably broken. Leo knew; he'd broken plenty himself. Piper was limping— _why didn't I see that earlier?_ Leo himself was still feeling slightly woozy and unsteady, not to mention the cuts on his back from one of the monsters, a particularly vicious one. But he'd had worse. They were a bedraggled group, for sure. But it was the best they could do, so it would have to work.

"Okay, guys, we need to be ready when Lyssa wakes up. Someone needs to taunt her and get her back into her Roman form, 'cause this net, while awesome, can't capture a shadow," Leo paused for a breath, aware (uncomfortably) that everyone was watching him. Wait, since when had he been uncomfortable with people watching him? That was new. "Then, we capture Furor, force her to tell us how to free Percy and Jason, and…" Leo froze. The shadow formerly slumped on the ground, was rising. And judging by her narrowed eyes, Lyssa had heard everything.

"Really? You wish to capture me with that netting, and perhaps force _me_ to free your two friends over there?" she laughed, a cold chuckle that made Leo's insides boil. "Actually I think that the net shall be a very useful _cage_ for you pesky demigods! You plan was just pathetic, although I don't suppose I could expect any more from _you,_ Valdez," Leo hated bullies. And essentially, Lyssa was just a very large bully, albeit a scary one. _This is going to be the new #1 on my Top Ten list…_ Leo exchanged a glance with the other demigods, hoping they would catch on.

"I don't think so, lady!" he yelled, and clutching the golden net like a battering net, he charged straight at Lyssa, whooping like a maniac.

 **I'm laughing so hard at that image.**

 **Update is on Wednesday or Thursday.**


	19. Insanity is Contagious, Apparently

**Here is... chapter 19!**

Nico

Leo was absolutely, completely crazy, Nico decided as he did exactly what Leo was doing—yelling random battle cries ("For the good of all non-evil people!" "Tacos!" "Let's kill Smoke Face!" "Lyssa sucks!"), brandishing his weapons, and _running full-speed at an even crazier goddess than Hera who could easily crush everyone._ Needless to say, Nico wasn't too happy with Leo's "plan". But since it was the only thing that even had a remote chance of working, well, Nico couldn't be too picky about Leo's choice. And it had the added bonus of watching Lyssa's face turn purple (or as purple as a shadow's face would get). Nico enjoyed that immensely, and he especially liked how visible steam rose from above Lyssa's head.

"What in the name of Uranus' chopped-up body are—" _Interesting curse,_ Nico thought as he chucked a razor-sharp Imperial gold knife at the goddess' head. He'd found an entire set of Celestial bronze/Imperial gold throwing knives left behind by some Furor, and he intended to put them to good use. Of course, Lyssa dodged it easily (Nico's aim wasn't too great), but the gesture made her focus on Nico. _Yay me!_ "So, Hades spawn, you want a rematch with me? Interesting choice, boy; but it's a choice you'll regret. After all, I only need _one_ child of Hades… Levesque is _much_ less troublesome than you…" Nico ignored the (not) subtle threat. As long as it wasn't directed at Hazel, he was fine with a few threats to his life. After all, he was still alive, right? He stood impassively, looking up at the spirit's enormous frame. From the corner of his eye, Nico saw Leo and Piper sneaking around with the all-important net, behind Lyssa. _Good, I'll keep her distracted._

"Interesting choice, _goddess,_ " Nico kept his tone pleasant and mild. For some reason, that scared people. He continued, mimicking Lyssa's earlier threat. "But, unfortunately for you, it's a choice you'll regret. After all, I am the son of _Hades_ …" He kept a relaxed posture and gazed defiantly at Lyssa with a stare that anyone in their right mind would run from. Of course, Lyssa _was_ out of her mind, so… Nico concentrated, beads of sweat rolling down the base of his neck, and with a massive effort almost as large as Lyssa (it was harder if he was extremely tired, which he was), felt the presence of the dead rising up, all around him. Skeletons, ghosts, ghouls, spirits—no matter what you called them, they were the dead. And Nico controlled the dead. "I am the son of Hades in his original form—Greek. I am the Ghost King, the Prince of Shadows and Darkness. I am a dweller of the Underworld and Ambassador to Pluto; I am a survivor of _Tartarus_ ," Nico raised his voice so that it echoed around the room impressively. "I can summon skeletons, spirits, and more. I can make your worst nightmares come true, and I can make your afterlife hell—literally. I am Nico di Angelo, and I am the son of Hades!"

Nico raised his arms, and summoned more ghostly defenders. Silently, they appeared, marching in tidy rows behind Nico. There were archers, cavalry mounted on shimmering-mirage horses, and foot soldiers with lethal weapons held at the ready. Nico had made sure that while his warriors were ghosts, their weapons were not; they were all made of Stygian Iron, and would instantly return Furores back to the Underworld, where they belonged. There was silence all around, and Lyssa broke it. Nico could tell that she was trying to sound disdainful, but the undercurrent of—what was it? Fear? Awe? Whatever it was, it meant that Nico was doing a good job distracting Lyssa. Maybe _too_ good… Lyssa seemed to grow larger, and when deities did that, no matter how crazy they were, it meant nothing good. Unfortunately, Nico was right on that point; it definitely was _not_ a good thing.

"Is that so? Well, _demigod_ , as it so happens, I am Lyssa, the spirit of rage, madness, and fury. I am the forerunner of insanity, and the personification of blind, raging fury," _Well, that explains a lot…_ Nico thought snidely, almost smirking, but kept his face devoid of any emotion. He had a feeling that if he smirked, Lyssa would kill him right then and there. "I am the herald of your worst fears, I am the goddess who infected the great hero Hercules, and the one who can drive mortals and demigods alike mad with a _single snap of my fingers_. I am the ruler of the Furores. I am their recruiter, their dispatcher, and their master. I am the goddess who was sidelined by Dionysus! I am the _true_ spirit, harbinger, personification, and goddess of rage, madness, and fury—the most painful methods of torture. I have caused great armies to turn on themselves, and I have caused great empires to fall. I have infected both great leaders and common peasants. And, now I am your executioner, son of Hades." Wisps of smoke detached form Lyssa and swirled towards Nico, who twisted away just in time to avoid being entangled in her web of rage, madness, and… oh yeah. Fury. The smoke was so close that Nico could _feel_ the emotions pulsing within: there was red-hot, burning hatred, there was quieter, colder, but just as deadly fury, there was swirling, twirling, twisting madness and unstoppable, earthshaking rage.

They began a kind of deadly dance: Nico and the smoke, twisting and spinning and turning around and around. Nico stabbed, slashed, and thrust with his blade, but his arm was tired, and his movements less agile after summoning his own spirits. Every time some smoke drifted away into nothingness, Lyssa sent more and more, and soon they surrounded him. Nico fought like a crazy person, and his own summoned warriors fought with him. They weaved through the smokiness together in a rhythm, and strangely, soon Nico's arm wasn't tired anymore. A broken bone snapped back into place, his wounds healed, his energy restored.

He could clearly see the trapped souls in Lyssa's smoke, and with a simple slash, he sent one free. Another cut, another soul freed from Lyssa's eternal torment. Skeletal soldiers formed ranks behind him as he set havoc to the smoke, the Furores, the throbbing madness, the unrelenting rage, the burning fury. He felt strong, powerful—no, he _was_ strong. He _was_ powerful. Every slash or stab of his blade dissolved more smoke. He, his sword, the Furores. They danced to a lethal pulse, they danced to the gentle, yet destructive, cadence of death. The world became black, white, and gray. There was no past nor future… there was only the now. The dead were Nico's, and the living were his to reap, but he only attacked Lyssa. He was vaguely aware of a dark aura surrounding him like a set of armor, but it didn't really matter. He could do anything; he was Nico di Angelo, son of Hades. And then Lyssa flickered to Furor, and the last thing Nico saw before the blessing of Hades left him was a flash of gold—a net being thrown over the smoke.

* * *

Jason

He had to die. He had to kill him. _But he isn't dying!_ What more could Jason do? He'd already tried a farraginous ***** medley of attacks, but the obstinate son of Poseidon was equally bent on destroying Jason. That did make the son of Jupiter's job harder, but he _would_ complete his task, or die trying. It was his duty, to become Lyssa's champion and host. And Jason was a Roman. Romans completed their duty—if they didn't, that meant that they were dead. Jason knew with absolute certainty that only one demigod would come out of the duel alive.

And as he didn't plan on dying _quite_ yet (he couldn't even legally drive yet!), Jackson would have to be sacrificed. Jason moved with calm efficiency, deflecting all of Percy's blows and retaliating with his own. His opponent was a skilled swordsman, Jason had to admit, even though he was possessed by the Furores, but his own powers were much stronger than Percy's. Water was no match for storm, especially if that storm happened to be Jason.

Strangely, Jason didn't feel tired from using his powers so much, like he usually would. There was a slight pain in his side and arms, but that was all. The Furores were helping him, guiding him, lending him strength. With their assistance, he was slowly driving Percy back; and that was the first sign of a winning battle. For he was Jason Grace, with Jupiter's powers, one of the most powerful demigods in existence, and the soon-to-be destroyer of Perseus Jackson. He was strong, powerful, and confident. He had his trusty weapon, Ivilis. He had years of experience under his belt. He had his powers, fully charged and ready to go. Jason was a fighter, a survivor. He wouldn't just curl up and die. He would _fight._ And then Jason got stabbed.

For a brief moment, he felt no pain, just a slight, uncomfortable pinching sensation. He continued pressing forward, sparring with his sword, which crackled loudly with barely restrained electricity. And _then_ the pain came—the waves upon waves of mind-numbing, desperate, frenzied pain. In all of his years as a demigod, Jason had never experienced anything like that before. And that was saying a lot, considering that he'd been at Camp Jupiter (and thus, fighting monsters) practically since birth, and he'd fought both a Titan _and_ a primordial goddess. The pain was wild, burning, crushing agony; it was a dull numbness that spread and spread until he collapsed in a heap on the ground. He forgot about his enemy, he forgot about the fight. He forgot all his anger, frustration, and fury. It wasn't _gone_ (it was still there, simmering beneath the surface), but Jason prioritized. Jason _not_ dying was ultimately more important than the other person dying. Jason might be possessed, but he wasn't stupid.

There was only the pain now. He was feverish, then cold. Freezing, then burning. He dropped Ivilis—it was too hot (or cold?) to touch. Jason moaned, completely unaware that he'd even done so. Clenching his eyes shut, he waited for the inevitable to come. And it did come. First, his vision blurred, then his hearing dulled. The welcome darkness descended upon him, blanketing his senses softly. His shoulders relaxed and his muscles loosened. Distantly, he heard cries of pain, outrage, and horror. Vaguely, he felt a tugging sensation somewhere on his torso, and a sticky liquid steadily flowing out of a wound, staining his shirt. With the last of his strength that seemed to have abandoned him, Jason forced his eyelids open, and he saw everything in one quick glimpse. He saw a dark-haired boy with smoky eyes in front of him, holding a bloodied bronze sword. He saw a tan girl with kaleidoscopic eyes screaming something, but he couldn't hear the words. He saw a dark mass writhing like a caged animal under a golden net, held down by a blond girl and a tall Asian boy. He saw a curly-haired girl with a sword gesturing frantically to two more people—a pale, dark-haired boy yelling something (was that a skeleton he was yelling at?), and a Latino guy who appeared to be on fire.

But the whispers—the whispers only he could hear—were clear as day, and impossible to ignore. _Lyssa needs you,_ they entreated him. _She will heal you, but you must continue to fight!_ Suddenly, Jason's senses sharpened, his mind returned, and his awareness was clear once more. _I thought she wanted one of us to die!_ He thought absently to the Furores, but he was already under their spell again. The answer to his question didn't really matter; of _course_ he would still fight! Why wouldn't he? He was loyal to the spirits, since they were his masters, after all. And anyway, he _wanted_ to crush that arrogant son of Poseidon into the realm of Hades. The spirits' answer came anyway: _She has her reasons… you see, she needs you alive as a bargaining chip, for her release. Not that you'd care. Your so-called friends are nothing to you._ The words meant nothing to Jason. And he had no idea who the "friends" were. But it didn't matter. He rose up slowly, his eyes smoky grey once more, and, ignoring Percy's cry of surprise, wrestled the shorter demigod to the ground.

"You bastard—" Jason grunted, flipping his enemy onto his back.

"I wouldn't be talking, Zeus spawn," Percy shot back, eyes narrowing. Jason saw the attack too late: he tried to roll away, but Percy slashed at his arm and a spot of blood leaked out.

The sight of the red fluid seemed to spark something in the other demigod. Percy attacked and attacked, and wouldn't let up. Jason's left leg collapsed under him, and he fell to the ground. _This is it, for real this time…_ but then a flash of gold caught Jason's eye. His sword! He snatched it up agilely and leaped up. Miraculously, his leg held this time. He grinned manically. The fight was back on.

 _Feint to the right! Good, good. Kick him! No, not there—yes, good! In the head!_ Jason obeyed immediately, using his powers to supplement his fighting. All he could hear was his blood pumping loudly and the clang of metal against metal, gold against bronze, demigod against demigod. _Fry his brains out! Not that he has any… more, more!_ A whirlwind of thunder and crackling lightning swirled around Jason, but Percy summoned a matching hurricane around _him._

 _He almost killed you in Kansas!_ Jason slashed at his adversary's face without pity. _Remember that time when he sat down at the head of the table, your rightful place?_ A vicious stab at Percy's arm. Blood came out. _Good._ Jason was gaining ground now. _He took your spot as praetor! He replaced you!_ That was the final straw. Jason leaped up, and brought his sword back. It glinted menacingly, and then he felt a whoosh of cool air as he rose and hovered in midair. "Say goodbye, Greek scum!" Jason laughed. Being in his father's domain lent him more strength, and he was going to use it to defeat the infuriating Percy Jackson once and for all.

 *** Yes, "farraginous" is a word. Look it up :)**

 **Next update: Over the weekend, or on Monday.**

 **Happy Halloween, everyone!**


	20. The Golden (and Glittering) Garbage Bag

**Chapter 20? I made it to twenty chapters?**

 **That's all you, readers.**

 **Thanks for the 100 reviews! *does a happy dance* I never expected this much support, so thanks everyone!**

Frank

"So. You got me: forgive me if I don't congratulate you," Lyssa—well, actually Furor—grumbled, shooting a hateful glare at Frank and his friends.

"Free. Percy. And. Jason!" Annabeth growled, her eyes blazing ferociously, tying her hair back in a tight ponytail. Seriously—whoever had come up with that ridiculous "dumb blonde" stereotype had obviously never met Annabeth, or any children of Athena, for that matter. Annabeth was, Frank freely admitted, _scary. Very_ scary. She stepped forward, then leaned down until she was face-to-shadow-face with the vicious spirit currently trapped underneath the glittering golden net. Frank honestly didn't know why Furor wasn't begging for forgiveness on her knees. Man, Annabeth was _really_ intimidating, with her patented give-me-my-boyfriend-right-now-or-else glare.

"I'm willing to strike a deal," Furor yawned lazily. "I'll give you Jackson for my freedom," Frank clenched his fists. Percy wasn't an _object_ that she was negotiating the selling price of, even if that was how she perceived him as.

"No—freaking—way!" Piper, as fast as lightning, pulled out her razor-sharp knife and pointed it directly at Furor. " _Both_ of them. _Let both of them free!"_ _Never mind… maybe Piper's the scariest…_ Involuntarily, Frank felt illogically compelled to run up to the two dueling demigods and drag them both back to Piper immediately, even though he knew perfectly well that that would just get him killed as collateral damage. Piper's charmspeak was really getting to be a powerful weapon and tool.

Despite the fact that she was trapped and pretty much at the demigods' mercy, Furor still had an annoyingly smug grin on her annoyingly chipper face. Now, while Frank didn't normally go around punching people in the face… well, he wanted to punch Furor in the face. Glancing around, he saw murderous expressions on Nico and Leo's faces. Piper and Annabeth were a mix of anger and worry. Annabeth was seething silently, while Frank was sure that Piper was muttering dark threats under her breath while glaring at Furor. Hazel, on the other hand, wore such a frightening expression that Frank had to blink twice to make sure that it really was her. "You do realize that I can drive you all insane right now, right?" Furor smirked triumphantly.

"Then who will let _you_ out of the net?" Frank snapped back angrily. He was tired of the goddess' tricks, her elaborate plots, her devious schemes. He was tired of _everything._ Couldn't he have a normal life? He pushed down the golden net a tiny bit. Not much, but just enough so that it dug into Furor just a tiny bit more. He resisted the urge to cackle evilly (Leo was rubbing off on him) as the goddess winced slightly. (Hey, just because he seemed like a harmless, easy-going kind of guy didn't mean he couldn't have his small revenges.)

"I _could_ also show you all my true, divine form and watch you all die painfully," mused the spirit thoughtfully.

Piper poked a finger at Furor. "That's not _funny!_ " she snarled irately, but Frank could see her hands trembling slightly. He flinched as he recalled what Piper was so upset about (they'd exchanged quest stories with each other on the real Argo II): Jason _had_ actually died once, upon seeing Juno's true godly form. Typical. As if stealing Jason's memories and sending him to a foreign camp wasn't enough, Juno just had to give him, Piper, and Leo a quest to free her from a trap. And then, of course, she killed one of her saviors. _Oh, you saved me! Thanks. I'll just kill you now… whoops! Oh well. Tough luck._ The only reason Jason was alive now was because Death hadn't been unchained yet. Frank could definitely see why most of the demigods hated Juno/Hera. Frank pushed down the net even harder. _What the schist is Furor playing at?!_ "And anyway, no one can let you out if we're dead," Piper continued, taking a deep breath.

"What if I send out some more Furores to _force_ you to let me out?" Furor shot back with no hesitation whatsoever. Frank froze, but his mind raced like Grover for enchiladas. (Percy had joked about that before… gods. Percy.) _Can she do that? None of the old myths, Greek_ or _Roman, have anything like this… she can't leave the net, but what_ can _she do?_ Luckily, Annabeth spoke up.

"Even if you _could_ do that—which I highly doubt, by the way—none of us can free you anyway," she paused. Frank grinned appreciatively. Of course—only powerful gods could free another from this kind of trap. And even then, only Vulcan could do it easily. _I mean, Hephaestus. That's a Greek myth._

Furor had to interrupt. "If you can't free me, then why am I still here, bargaining with you?" Frank mentally face-palmed, and his smile slid off. They'd underestimated Furor. She was more intelligent, more powerful than she'd let on. As Lupa would say, she was establishing her dominance over the rest of them.

"Because we have access to Hephaestus, who _can_ free you," Leo spat, his disgust evident. Frank stared in shock at the normally easy-going demigod. Had he ever seen the fire-user truly angry before, besides when he was possessed by the Furores? Even then, he'd seemed more like his usual self than now. Frank was realizing how little the demigods actually knew about each other. Sure, they knew all the important stuff like who spent the most time in the bathroom (Percy; Leo claimed that it was because Percy was trying to "become one with the plumbing"); sure, they knew who you could count on to help without laughing if you got stuck in a pair of Chinese handcuffs (Annabeth). But did Frank know what Piper's favorite color was? Not that it mattered so much, but still.

"True," Furor concede, jolting Frank out of his thoughts. "It appears that we are at a stalemate." Frank rolled his eyes, not even bothering to conceal it. _Come on, Frank! You're the kid of the freaking war god! Come up with something!_ But try as he might, he thought of no good solution that would satisfy both sides. And time was running out for Percy and Jason; when Frank shot a glance over his shoulder at them, he noticed that both were breathing more heavily than before, and sporting multiple wounds each. They had to do something, and fast.

"Don't even think about it," Furor jeered. Frank's fingers itched for his bow. "My barrier cannot be broken by the likes of _you_ …" she continued bragging about her barrier. In Latin, no less. Frank tuned out, but a sudden Latin phrase made a connection in his brain. _Uno modo._ One way; what was one way? _Unum posteque._ One-sided. One way, one-sided. _The barrier is blocking US from reaching THEM, but not THEM from reaching US! She's depending on the Furores to keep them in, but if we attracted their attention in some way…_ Frank grinned. It was so simple, yet so elegant. He had a plan now. And he was sure that Mars had helped him notice the important phrases. _Thanks, dad._

* * *

Percy

Percy grinned wolfishly as he heard the screams. He continued fighting with the savage smile upon his face. The screams were blood-curdling, high-pitched, and seemed to never end. In other words, they were awesome. _One step closer to beating the hell out of Grace!_ That was the only thing that mattered now. Percy pushed down all other thoughts. The Furores took the place of his friends, and he forgot them. There was just his mission, and the infernal screaming. Percy sidestepped a sharp jab and rolled to the right, narrowly avoiding a vicious kick to his head. Jason hovered above him, wearing a glare and wielding his crackling sword. He was decidedly _not_ screaming. So who was? Percy's mind dwelled on the question, though he knew that he should be focusing on his opponent, Jason. But now that he'd thought about it, Jason's voice wasn't _that_ high-pitched. And it was impossible to scream that loudly without moving your mouth. Though Percy had to admit that Jason was a worthy opponent, Jason wasn't _that_ good. So—who was screaming?

Percy fought almost robotically, ducking when Jason attacked, pressing forward when Jason fell back. The Furores tried to spark his anger again: _Come on, Perseus! Fight harder! KILL HIM!_ The screaming continued, and so Perky continued to ignore the spirits' chiding.

 _I am fighting!_ He thought back to them. _Let me take at least a short mental break, okay?_ No reply from the Furores—Percy took that as assent. The raging fury inside him subsided somewhat, though; Percy still wanted to make the son of Jupiter pay for what he'd done (what did he do, anyway?), but he just wasn't quite so _eager_ to do it right then. Whatever Jason needed to be punished for could wait a moment, right? _Your choice,_ the Furores sounded disgruntled, and Percy felt a cold chill on the back of his neck. His fighting immediately got better. Stronger. More powerful. _You're welcome, Perseus Jackson._ The son of Poseidon knew that the Furores were helping him, but he couldn't resist a final parting shot: _Don't call me Perseus. Call me—_

" _Seaweed Brain!_ " Percy blinked. The voice sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. It was _not_ Jason, though. The screaming started back up, but this time Percy strained to hear the words. " _Seaweed…_ full of kelp… _brain…_ get out… _KELP HEAD!_ Holy _Athena…_ schist!" The words made no sense, though Percy felt a strange sort of déjà vu, like he should've known the person with the voice. He shrugged and returned to the process of stabbing his enemy in the shoulder. Somebody else screamed, and Percy sighed before twisting away from a poorly-aimed lightning strike. The voices seemed to be affecting Jason too, but Percy was still irritated. _Can't they stop with the high-pitched screaming until Jason's dead, at least?!_

But this voice was familiar as well. "Oh my gods… _WHAT THE HADES…_ holy shit! Gods, _Jason!"_ A variety of interesting cusses followed. "… The _hell! Jason!_ Sparky, get out of that weird barrier thing!" Immediately, the son of the sea felt compelled to run towards the voice at top speed. In fact, he started to, but the Furores saved him. _Don't listen!_ At the last second, Percy tripped Jason, who lay sprawled on the ground for a moment before hovering back into the air, taunting Percy.

Another voice—masculine this time—joined in to the chorus of yells. "Yo, Lighting Boy! _Get your butt out here!_ Beauty Queen's gonna _kill you_! Same goes for you, Kelp Head!" Percy and Jason turned at the same time towards the familiar-but-strange voices.

Yet another. "Percy, Jason, come on! Get out of there!"

"Yeah, let's go!" Percy's mind inexplicably came up with an image of a blond girl with a pair of intimidating grey eyes, arms crossed, and wearing a glare.

"Get your seaweed-clogged brains out of there before I do it for you!" It sounded like there were at least six different people calling to them, but the voices were distant, muffled in some way. Percy squinted, completely forgetting that only moments before, he'd been fighting to the death with Jason. Sure enough, there were six humanoid figures facing the two fighters, thankfully not monsters. Percy could handle a bloodthirsty demigod and a horde of monsters eager for a fresh meal of demigod stew, but not at the same time, especially after Jason had battered him down already. Next to the not-monsters was something that looked like a massive garbage bag tied up with a glittering golden net.

The Furores were silent—maybe they were curious about these strangers too. For the first time, Percy noticed his surroundings. He was on one side of a room that was beautifully designed, though plain at first glance. Suddenly, another unbidden image popped into his head: the blond girl again, talking excitedly about architecture. _Annabeth._ Wait—where had that come from? Anyway, the room had bloodstained floors that was originally in a shade of charcoal, stacks of weapons along the walls, and a single window where bright sunlight was streaming through. Percy distantly remembered the room being dark before—had it really been that long? But he tore his gaze from the room itself and studied the six strangers.

They were an odd group, for sure. There was a buff Asian guy with an arm around a petite African-American girl and a boy with dark hair, a dark sword, dark clothing, and… well, an aura of darkness around him, literally. Next to them stood a short, elfish-looking Latino fiddling with his fingers, talking reassuringly to a girl with hastily-tied choppy brown hair. She was responding to the elf, but was staring worriedly at Jason.

But the last person… she wasn't a stranger. She had wavy blond hair in a high ponytail, penetrating grey eyes, a set jaw, crossed arms—the entire don't-mess-with-me package. Her jeans were ripped, the hem of her shirt cut of roughly. She had visible cuts and bruises all over, and an incarnadine bandage wrapped around her head, like a sweatband. _Annabeth._ Her eyes met Percy's. _Oh my gods. She's beautiful._ He forgot all about the duel, about Lyssa, about the Furores. And everything rushed back to him in a gigantic wave of memories. _How could I have forgotten?!_ Without a second thought, Percy ran to her, bursting through the invisible wall with ease, but stopped just short of kissing her. He stared into her eyes, and saw his reflection in them. He was, plainly, a bloody mess. But he had his green eyes back. He heard Leo's whoop and Hazel's joyful laughter, and sensed Piper's and Jason's lips crashing together and Frank's impulsive hugging of Nico. But he saw the green eyes vividly. _Then_ he kissed Annabeth, and felt her smile.

 **They've gotten Jason and Percy back! *whoops along with Leo***

 **The next chapter will be an epilogue of sorts... but I'm already planning out my next story :)**


	21. An Epilogue Sort Of

**Without further ado... (I've already made you wait too long). Enjoy this unexpected POV.**

Calypso

Calypso had been at Camp Half-Blood for six days, after the foul-smelling wind had taken all seven demigods of the prophecy, and Nico, to... somewhere. It didn't take a child of Athena to figure that even though the Giant War was over, demigods- especially those eight- still had enemies.

All Iris-messages failed. All the contraptions the Hephaestus cabin endeavored to come up with either exploded or didn't work. The pegasi couldn't trace them, not even Blackjack, Percy's pegasus. The children of Apollo asked the god for help, with no luck- apparently, Apollo had gotten into trouble with Zeus. (At least _some_ things were as Calypso remembered them; godly politics were always brutal.) The satyrs and various nature spirits couldn't help, either- it seemed like the heroes' location was hidden, and very well, at that. The worst part was that Calypso _could_ help, but no one trusted her, and even the ones who did didn't believe she could, or should, try to use her magical powers to find the demigods. The centaur, Chiron himself, had warned her against using her magic. But Calypso disregarded that.

Calypso reflected on those early days as she sat on the beach of the lake at Camp Half-Blood. The sand was pleasantly warm under her, and a cool breeze ruffled her hair, which danced in the sunlight. If she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine herself sitting at her dining table, barefoot, back on Ogygia. (Before Leo landed and destroyed her dining table, of course.) It wasn't that she missed it there; of _course_ she was glad to leave!

But she missed the quiet and the calm, relaxing peace of the island. This lake on the edge of camp was where Calypso came to think, away from the sometimes overwhelming hustle-and-bustle of camp. She could still hear the sizzling of the lava climbing wall, the hammering at the forges, and the chattering of the naiads and dryads, but they were more distant at the lake.

When Chiron had nervously Iris-messaged Camp Jupiter to inform them that their praetor and a centurion had (again) vanished while on a pleasure trip to visit their friends and the other heroes of the prophecy... suffice to say that Calypso could hear the bellowed Latin curses halfway across camp. Reyna herself had flown in on a giant Roman eagle to work with the Greek demigods. Search teams were sent out to the east, since that was the direction the demigods had been seen heading towards. Reyna organized teams of pegasi and skilled demigods to search, and also led the Hecate cabin's effort to track down the missing heroes.

Calypso tiredly laid down in the soft sand as she remembered the camp's collective reaction to their heroes being gone, and Calypso herself arriving with Leo, who'd been there for less than twenty minutes before being whisked away. Again.

* * *

 _The campfire, which had been twenty feet high and bright purple before, was now an ugly shade of vomit green and barely up to knee level as Chiron broke the news, bowing his head sadly. Calypso stood next to him, fidgeting awkwardly and uncomfortably aware of everyone's gazes on her._

 _None of the demigods seemed to like her much, except for the Aphrodite girls. It could have been the fact that Percy Jackson had once landed on her island. Or perhaps simply because she was not a demigod. Another possibility was because Atlas the Titan was her father. Or, maybe because she'd_ supported _him in the first Titan War. There were, in all honestly, a lot of reasons why they wouldn't like Calypso. Whatever the reasons, the children of Aphrodite were still squealing about how Calypso had done her hair, or her clothing, or something of that nature..._

 _Calypso would never understand the children of the love goddess, no matter that she'd lived for several millennia. On Ogygia, Leo had often complained (jokingly) about them, besides Piper, his friend. Honestly, they were even worse in person._

 _More memories with Leo played in Calypso's mind. Him teasing her. Him grinning that mischievous smile of his. Him... Calypso fought to keep her expression stoic. First Odysseus, the ancient hero, had left. Then the pirate- the roguishly handsome son of Ares, Drake. Then, there was Percy. Percy was just like the other heroes who had washed up on Ogygia's shores. He was handsome, with his sea-green eyes and tousled, jet-black hair. He was powerful, even for a son of Poseidon. He was also both charming and youthful. So of course, Calypso fell in love with him; but then, he left too._

 _But what about Leo? He was different. He was_ nothing _like Percy or the other heroes. At first glance, he wasn't handsome. At all. He was scrawny, short, and lacked manners. He didn't seem that powerful, being a son of Hephaestus, fire-user or not. He wasn't charming or elegant, either. He was pretty much the opposite. In fact, he seemed to take pleasure in antagonizing Calypso. Yet... he was handsome in his_ _own impish way. He wasn't traditionally powerful, but strong in a way only Leo could be. And once you got to know him, he actually was quite amusing, not to mention that he'd saved her. And now, he was gone._

 _She was jolted back to the present as Chiron cleared his throat loudly. "As many of you are aware, Leo brought back Calypso from his... er... trip. Travis, Connor- is there any more space in the Hermes cabin for Calypso here?" He looked at a pair of identical-looking boys, with the same smirks and twinkling eyes. They had pointy, elfish ears and a_ lot _of nervous energy, if their tapping fingers and constant movements were any indication. They reminded Calypso of Leo. The slightly taller one stepped forward._

 _"We've got some space, but-"_

 _"The Hephaestus cabin will take her in," interrupted a tan, muscular girl dressed in a tank top and athletic shorts. She had a red bandanna tied around her head, keeping her hair out of the way. Her arms were stained with grease, and she had a don't-mess-with-me attitude around her. Calypso vaguely remembered her name: Nyssa, Leo's half-sister._ _"Right, Jake?" she nudged an equally muscular boy with a cast on his arm. He nodded, and Calypso was struck by how differently they were built than Leo... while they were strong and muscular, Leo was lean and wiry._

 _"This is highly irregular..." Chiron started, but was interrupted._

 _"Please...we haven't seen Leo in such a long time, and..." a little boy who couldn't have been more than nine years old stepped forward. He wore a stained grey T-shirt and cargo pants that looked like all its pockets were stuffed with tools. Sure enough, he took out a piece of wood and started absentmindedly sanding down the edges to make a point. Calypso smiled faintly; she recognized that action. Leo started fidgeting whenever he was anxious. "We haven't seen Leo, so..." he repeated, and Nyssa put an arm around his shoulders. The other cabins looked on fondly, even the Ares cabin._

 _"A friend of Leo's is a friend of ours, even if Leo's an idiot," she stated firmly._

* * *

Calypso smiled wryly. None of Hephaestus' kids were very comfortable around her, like the god himself, but at least they accepted her and didn't judge her immediately. Calypso supposed that it would've been hypocritical of them to do so, considering that their father was _Hephaestus_ , who was made lame after Hera saw his disfigured face and tossed him off of Mount Olympus as a baby. And for the most part, the Hermes and Aphrodite cabins were nice to her.

Nemesis' children hated her, but apparently they held a permanent grudge against the world. Iris, Tyche, and Demeter were slightly skittish around her, while Dionysus (both the god and his cabin), Athena, and Apollo were just tolerant of her. Ares, however... somehow, nearly half of them blamed her for the eight heroes' disappearance. Thankfully, their head counselor, a tough girl named Clarisse, thought that idea was (quote) "completely idiotic, but who would expect any more from _you,_ punk?" Dionysus had eyed her and then refused to talk, flashing away to Olympus. Calypso guessed that the council was in complete disarray- the disappearance of eight demigod heroes who saved the world and the reappearance of a banished goddess tended to cause _some_ inconvenience for the gods.

The camp didn't allow her to help in the search effort, at least not directly, so Calypso was forced to stay at camp. Of course, they had valid reasons to do so: they didn't know if the Olympians would kill her once out of camp, they didn't know if she was still immortal or not, they didn't know if she would attract more monsters than demigods, etc. And to top it all off, her magic from Ogygia seemed to be fading slightly. Calypso could only see brief glimpses into the past and some very minor magic.

What she'd seen... it wasn't exactly pleasant.

Calypso shuddered. Those brief images were the stuff of nightmares... she'd seen Leo and Percy shouting at each other in what appeared to be a heated argument in topics ranging from Leo's mother, the Giant War, and Calypso (that was bound to come up sooner or later). She'd seen the two children of Hades (well, one was a daughter of Pluto) turning on each other and saying vicious, soul-crushing things. Leo had told her that Nico, the son of Hades from the 1940s, had went through _Tartarus_ \- literal hell- by _himself._ Now, to hear his half-sister saying such things... She'd seen the two Roman demigods (Frank, the current praetor, and Jason, the former praetor) fighting each other as if their lives depended on it, which might have actually been the case.

And the worst part? All the other demigods had just been _standing_ there, watching, and making no move to stop the fighters at all. Calypso had sensed some sort of restraint around them, so perhaps that was why. But still- who had enough raw power to keep eight of the most powerful demigods in history restrained somewhere, presumably against their will, for _six entire days_?

Suddenly, a loud boom shook the sand, and Calypso was jolted out of her musings. She glanced around instantly- she was alone on the beach, but all the campers in hearing range were racing towards the beach in a furious mass. She jumped up, instinctively grabbing a discarded, unsheathed Celestial bronze sword from the beach and hefting it up. She squinted into the azure blue sky; there was a pegasus approaching. _Must be a returning search party, then._ She relaxed her grip on the blade, but kept it held at the ready. The pegasus had two riders, and as they grew closer, Calypso could make out Reyna, sitting proudly in the front with a grin on, and another girl sitting behind. She had curly hair and hazel eyes- _That's one of the Seven! Hazel!_ Another pegasus, jet-black this time, landed deftly on the beach, just a few feet away from Calypso.

This one had two passengers as well- a blond girl with stormy grey eyes, and someone with his arms around her waist. _Percy! And that's Annabeth!_ Calypso ran forward, scanning the horizon for the rest of the demigods. If three of the missing demigods were here, the others must be coming as well... Right?

A giant eagle flew towards her, and Calypso ignored it until she remembered something Leo had told her back on Ogygia- _Frank, the son of Mars, can changed forms!_ Sure enough, as she watched, the eagle changed- its beak shifted into a normal mouth, its beady, intelligent, golden eyes morphed into warm brown eyes, and its feathers changed into skin and clothing- until there stood a burly demigod. _Four more._ Suddenly, a shadowy figure appeared behind her in the shadow of a tree, nearly knocking her over. He was holding a solid black sword and wore a skull ring. He apologized hastily, not sounding very sorry at all. _That must be Nico. Three more._

A glint of blond hair in the sky caught the sunlight like one of Calypso's cave crystals. She shaded her eyes, and saw two distant figures high in the air- one blond boy with a look of intense concentration on his face, and one girl who was smiling widely and who had choppy brown hair. _Jason and Piper- Leo's best friends. But where's_ Leo _?!_

Her thoughts were disturbed by an explosion. A ball of fire was descending upon the beach, and appeared to have a harness of bronze wings that shone in the sun attached. As it grew closer, Calypso could hear the noisy metal wings flapping, and a very distinct voice was yelling something- _very_ loudly.

"Who's the man?! Woo, _Archimedes' inventions are awesome!_ Bad Boy Supreme is coming! Also known as Captain Toolbelt, Supreme Commander, and Super-Sized Mc- AH!" The rest was drowned out as a sooty, sheepish looking son of Hephaestus crash-landed right on top of Calypso. She gazed up at him. His curly, messy hair was wild, and his clothing was singed and smelled terrible. Luckily, he was no longer on fire.

Leo.

* * *

" _Leo Valdez!_ " Calypso got back on her feet and unceremoniously pulled him up. "Explanation. Now." She smirked as she saw him gulp and nod.

As he started telling the story, he unstrapped the burned metal wings and tossed it to the side. The other seven demigods and Reyna gathered around, along with the entire camp. They added details occasionally, and Jason in particular seemed to take special delight in describing how Lyssa had looked like a giant garbage bag. By the time they were finished, everyone was silent. "... and then, after we dumped Lyssa-the-Trash-Bag to the side, we left and headed here. Reyna, her pegasus, and Blackjack the other pegasus met us halfway and... Yeah," Leo finished, smiling crookedly. Calypso was speechless, then doubled over in laughter.

"So. Basically there was an evil, insane goddess who wanted revenge on all of you and made you fight against each other," she started. Piper nodded and shrugged. "And then, you defeated her by putting a net around her," The eight heroes laughed.

"But seriously," someone spoke up. Calypso glanced over; it was Hazel. "What-" she never got to finish. A flash of bright, golden light appeared suddenly, and a goddess emerged. It was Hera, clad in a white dress and gladiator sandals.

"Demigods," she announced, speaking loudly. "Lyssa, the one who abducted you, has been sent into Tartarus, to join her mother, Night," The campers cheered. "The entire Olympian council applauds your bravery and resourcefulness in defeating her, although Hephaestus helped you," she sent a glare up at the heavens, and in response, thunder rumbled. "However," she continued, "Zeus has decided to grant him a pardon," (The sky cleared again.) "The imagined Argo II is no longer in physical form. Good day, heroes," another flash of light (Calypso covered her eyes) and the goddess of marriage was gone.

Calypso grinned widely and kissed Leo gently, unmindful of the dozens of campers milling around, and ignoring the cries of "Ship! Ship!" from the children of Aphrodite. (Seriously, what in Hades did a _ship_ have to do with them kissing?! _The modern world is strange, indeed._ ) Hand in hand, they headed back to Camp Half-Blood.

* * *

Hera

Hera stood, unseen, on the top of Zeus' Fist, overlooking the camp of demigods- one of the perks of being a divine being. _Lyssa has a point_ , she mused. _The demigods certainly understand each other now, but before, they did not._ She stroked her chin and pursed her lips thoughtfully. _Perhaps some more bonding experiences would do them good,_ especially _the Seven of the Second Great Prophecy._ The goddess of family smiled, and if she were a cartoon character (just not in Hercules; those representations of her were _horrible_ ), a light bulb would've gone on above her godly head. Yes, that would _certainly_ help them bond.

* * *

 _ **Fin.**_

* * *

 **I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Strangely enough, this is my longest chapter.**

 **Shoutouts and blue cookies to everyone who reviewed, followed, favorited, and read (that includes all of you silent readers)!**

 **This can be read as a single story, or a prequel to my next fic, which will be called "Flawed Heroes". Keep an eye out for that; I've already started writing the first chapter of that, and it should be posted sometime in the next two days.**

 **I will be making minor edits and revisions to this story while I write the next, as well. (Ex: more description/ explanation of some things, fixing some typos/ minor grammatical errors, et cetera.) You don't need to reread this entire thing, since none of the plot will be changed. I'll just be fixing some mistakes.**

 **UPDATE: Fixed Chapters 17-21.**

 **Plot of "Flawed Heroes": Hera decides that the Seven heroes need to learn more about each other- specifically, their fatal flaws. So, of course, she unleashes a personification of each of their fatal flaws upon them. Because that's _exactly_ how you learn more about your friends. At least, in the demigod world... -Appearance by Nico!**

 **UPDATE: Nico will have a role to play as well...**

 **Thank you, everyone! *bows***

 **Calefe out.**


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